Welcome
Jehovah's Witnesses are known all over the world for their vigorous support of bloodless medicine. The position of Jehovah's Witnesses on blood transfusions, has resulted in positive benefits to the community at large and the field of medicine. The advancement of bloodless surgery accrues benefits to many who are not Jehovah's Witnesses. While blood transfusions are known to be traumatic to the system, and can result in shock, or even death, the spread of infectious diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis-C are limited through the use of bloodless medicine methods.
Many hospitals in the past 30 years, have developed bloodless surgery centers, both in the United States and other parts of the world. This has resulted in a much higher standard of medical treatment, resulting in a net saving of human life, rather than the loss of life.
The most difficult and serious operations are being regularly performed on Jehovah's Witnesses and others, without blood transfusions, by utilizing a number of advances in modern medicine, and also, by the careful attention in the operating room given by skilled and conscientious surgeons, who are not Jehovah's Witnesses, but who are committed to quality health care and safety.
Children also receive operations, some of which are very delicate, utilizing bloodless surgery, and children today can be operated on, as necessary, for every type of surgery, without the necessity of blood transfusion. As a result, Jehovah's Witnesses, and their children, recieve the optimum and safest type of surgery available, utilizing the most skilled surgeons and up to date medical treatment.
Jehovah's Witnesses are interested in saving lives, both in terms of salvation, by means of the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but also in the present life, as the Bible says, "the dead do not praise Jah." So Jehovah's Witnesses do all that they can, both for the future, and for the present, to preserve and their own lives and those of their children, by every means possible, without breaking God's laws, as stated in the Holy Bible.
Blood and the Bible
The Bible refers to blood as something sacred, belonging to God. By respecting the fact that it is God who is the giver of life, we acknowledge God as the source of all life. For this reason, the Bible has always considered blood to be sacred, that man was not to eat blood from the days of Noah, the time of Moses, and in Christian times. Early Jews never ate blood.
In the Christian part of the Bible, the command was given by the early apostles, "For the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to YOU, except these necessary things, to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication, if YOU carefully keep yourselves from these things, YOU will prosper. Good health to YOU!" Acts 15:28,29, Holy Bible.
Jehovah's Witnesses take this scripture at face value, as something inspired by God. Therefore, they do not eat blood, as might be the custom in some cultures, but also, they "abstain from blood," as the Bible says. If one were to abstain from alcohol, because he or she might die from drinking alcohol, would it matter if the alcohol was taken orally, or injected directly into the veins? Really, it would result in the same complications for that person.
Similarly, when the Bible says to äbstain from blood, Jehovah's Witnesses abstain from both eating or drinking blood, as well as taking blood transfusions. However, there are many methods of naturally building up one's blood level, and increasing blood volume without actually taking blood, and this Jehovah's Witnesses practice and advocate.
Links to Jehovah's Witnesses sites and videos on bloodless medicine
No Blood - Medicine Meets the Challenge - Video - Official Site
Jehovah's Witnesses and Health - Official Site - Information and Video
Jehovah's Witnesses and Medical Care
Medical Journals:
Blood: Whose Choice and Whose Conscience?
Jehovah's Witnesses—The Surgical/Ethical Challenge
Videos:
No Blood—Medicine Meets the Challenge
Transfusion-Alternative Strategies
Meeting Patient Needs and Rights
Other Links
No Blood Org - We are a community of medical professionals and members of the public who are responding to the worldwide concern about the efficacy, cost and availability of donor blood. - Not Jehovah's Witness Site.
Bloodless Surgery Helps Save Lives - November 13, 2002 - Imperial College London Reported
Bloodless Choices - Newsletter - Spring/Summer 2009 - Englewood Hospital and Medical Center
Bloodless Choices - Newsletter - Fall/Winter 2008 - Englewood Hospital and Medical Center
University Hospital Bloodless Center, Newark, NJ
Directory of Bloodless Centers - 116 bloodless medical centers in the United States - NoBlood.org
Recent News & Links
Bloodless surgery Health News Report CBS News - Video
Health News Now: "A new study shows potentially life saving blood transfusions during surgery might actually do more harm than good, that is why at least one local hospital in Southern Florida is now offering so-called bloodless surgeries that combine special tools and techniques to speed up recovery....."
April 24, 2009 - Englewood, NJ - NJN News Healthwatch Report
Today, bloodless surgery is the norm at Englewood Hosptial and When it comes to bloodless medicine, Englewood Hospital is considered a world leader. For years, its bloodless approach has been used for everything from gastric procedures to cardiac bypass surgery
promotes healing, reduces infection and saves lives. "The results that we have which is the lowest morbidity and mortality in cardiac surgery in the state, is associated again, with the lowest transfusion rates that have been published so far...," Dr. Arye Shander, executive medical director.
The lowest transfusion rates....nationally and internationally. 15,000 procedures a year, fully 95% bloodless. The blood is collected and recycled. Cell saver, it is cleaned and returned to the patient's abody. "Medical literature shows that about 60% of the time, patients recieve blood for no good reason...." Transfused blood can lead to..."Increased risk of death, increased heart attacks, strokes, increased ICU stay. " Sherri Ozawa, RN, director of bloodless medicine program, Englewood. It "doesn't really matter if it is your own blood or someone elses, once it comes back out of that fridge...it does not pick up oxygen very well, it does not drop off oxygen very well."
Naval Medical Research Center’s Briefing Book
14 December 2006
Blood Products Advisory Committee (BPAC) Meeting, Naval
Bad Blood [in the United States]
U.S. News and World Report
By Richard J. Newman, Doug Podolsky and Penny Loeb
6/19/94
LINDA FITZGERALD, 69 LONGMONT, COLO. TRANSFUSED MAY 1993. NOW INFECTED WITH HIV. Four months after gallstone surgery in May 1993, Linda Fitzgerald learned she had contracted HIV from infected plasma received just before an operation to reverse the effects of blood thinners she takes for a heart condition. She has since begun suffering from swollen glands and other symptoms caused by the virus. The former waitress and store clerk finds it hard not to dwell on what will become of her. "When I think about what's going to happen..."
ROBERT DUANE JONES, 62 WILSALL, MONT. TRANSFUSED NOVEMBER 1989. NOW DIAGNOSED WITH AIDS. Rushed into surgery with a burst abdominal artery, Bob Jones needed blood to pull through. Four months later, the Red Cross blood bank in Portland, Ore., called: One unit had come from a donor who had since tested positive for HIV. Later that week, Jones tested positive, too. In his lawsuit against the Red Cross, Jones contended the donor had not been asked specific questions meant to screen out people at high risk for HIV. The Red Cross and Jones settled the first day of the trial, the Red Cross admitting no wrongdoing. Jones has been diagnosed with AIDS.
Hepatitis C and blood transfusions -
July 31, 2009 The Medical News
Blood transfusions run the risk of contracting Hepatitis C at the rate of 1 in 900. This translates to approximately 5,500 in the U.S. per year. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a blood-borne disease that causes inflammation of the liver and to which there is currently no vaccine available. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 3% of the world's population, approximately 170 million people, are infected with HCV and it is a leading cause of liver cirrhosis, end stage liver disease, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver transplantation.
The mortality rate for those with Hepatitis C is approximately 11-37% higher than those who do not have the disease. This means that there would be approxitely 900 deaths per year in the U.S. as a result of contracting Hepatitis C from blood transfusions over an approximately eight year period, interpolating the statistics from clinical studies on Hepatitis C.
Mortality rates higher in hepatitis C virus carriers
April 24, 2008 - Guardian.co.uk Guardian News and Media
More than half of blood transfusions may do more harm than good, with some patients facing a six-fold greater risk of dying following surgery because of transfusions, doctors warn today.
While the risks of contracting life-threatening infections, such as HIV, from blood transfusions are well understood, doctors believe the danger posed by the blood itself is more serious. Although they do not fully understand why blood transfusions are linked to higher death rates, they suspect that ageing blood that has been stored before being given to patients is less able to carry oxygen to vital organs and causes damage to the immune system.
One study of almost 9,000 patients, led by cardiac surgeon Gavin Murphy at the Bristol Heart Institute, found that patients who had heart surgery between 1996 and 2003 were three times more likely to die a year after their operation if they had a blood transfusion. In the month after surgery they were six times more likely to die than patients who did not receive donated blood.
This page was created December 30, 2009 - This is not an official site of Jéhovah's Witnesses. There are three official sites of Jehovah's - One can read concerning Jehovah's Witnesses Beliefs at the watchtower.org site. The official public media site for Jehovah's Witnesses can be found at this link. Literature and music downloads,Bible dramas for children and youth can be located at this site for Jehovah's Witnesses.