Blood

[TBC: Like the Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses on occasion may “bend” their inviolable doctrines for the sake of the organization’s convenience. Witnesses believe a blood transfusion “may result in the immediate and very temporary prolongation of life, but at the cost of eternal life for a dedicated Christian.”[1]]
 
RECENT WATCHTOWER CONTROVERSIES CONCERNING BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS
1998
 
In 1998, in order to receive legal recognition from the government of Bulgaria, the Watchtower Society signed an agreement with the Bulgarian government in which they stated that “members should have free choice in the matter for themselves and their children, without any control or sanction on the part of the association.”[2] A press release distributed in 1997 by the European Commission of Human Rights clearly explains the understanding of the Commission and the Bulgarians of the Society’s stated position: “In respect of the refusal of blood transfusion, the applicant association [i.e., the Jehovah’s Witnesses] submits that there are no religious sanctions for a Jehovah’s Witness who chooses to accept blood transfusion and that, therefore, the fact that the religious doctrine of Jehovah’s Witnesses is against blood transfusion cannot amount to a threat to ‘public health.’[3] (http://www.watchman.org/jw/jwtransfusions2000.htm).
 
[TBC: It is to be hoped that this will be the beginning of the end for this hideous doctrine.]
 
1. ”Blood, Medicine, and the Law of God (Brooklyn: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society,” 1961), p. 55.
 
2. Information Note No. 148, [Online]. URL http://194.250.50.201/eng/E276INFO.148.html.
 
3. Press Communiqué Issued by the Secretary to the European Commission of Human Rights, Application No. 28626/95, [Online]. URL http://www.dhcommhr.coe.fr/eng/28626CP.E.html. Emphasis added.