Blood Policy JW

TBC: We have noted recent developments in the Jehovah's Witnesses concerning their total ban on blood transfusions. In 2000 the cult took a tentative step to reverse one of their most egregious beliefs (http://www.ajwrb.org/basics/hemopure.shtml) [excerpts].
 
"Jehovah's Witnesses have long been known for their rejection of blood and blood-component transfusion, even when it is necessary to save life. In a remarkable change in policy, the Witnesses' governing body announced in the June 15, 2000 issue of its official church publication The Watchtower, that members may now accept "fractions of any of the primary components" of blood. (Italics added) Previously, Witnesses who accepted a transfusion of blood fractions other than those found in plasma faced possible expulsion and enforced shunning by church members."
 
"This change in policy was particularly timely for one man. According to a September 24, 2000 article in the Sacramento Bee, a patient was recently transfused with Hemopure®, a highly purified oxygen-carrying hemoglobin solution made from fractionated bovine (cow) blood and manufactured by Biopure Corporation."
 
[TBC: Unfortunately, JWs must deal with "unchanging" pronouncements of past leaders."]
 
"Is it wrong to sustain life by administering a transfusion of blood or plasma or red cells or others of the component parts of the blood? Yes!...The prohibition includes "any blood at all." (Leviticus:3:17It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.
See All...) - "Blood, Medicine and the Law of God," 1961, pp. 13, 14.
 
" . . . various tonics and tablets sold by druggists show on their labels that they contain blood fractions such as hemoglobin. So it is necessary for one to be alert . . . if they are to keep themselves ‘without spot from the world.’--Jas. 1:27." "The Watchtower," 9/15/61, p. 557.
 
"Early in man's history, our Creator ruled that humans should not eat blood. (Genesis:9:3Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
See All..., 4) He stated that blood represents life, which is a gift from him. Blood removed from a creature could be used only in sacrifice, such as on the altar. Otherwise, blood from a creature was to be poured on the ground, in a sense giving it back to God . . . It would be right, of course, to avoid products that listed things such as blood, blood plasma, plasma, globin (or globulin) protein, or hemoglobin (or globin) iron." "The Watchtower," 10/15/92 - Questions From Readers.
 
[TBC: The question remains whether the organization will admit they have taught falsely for decades or admit that their false teachings have resulted in the needless deaths of many. The following statement is revealing.]
 
As recently as 1998 two officials from the Watchtower Society's "Hospital Information Services" wrote that Jehovah's Witnesses "do not accept hemoglobin which is a major part of red blood cells.... Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept a blood substitute which uses hemoglobin taken from a human or animal source." Bailey R, Ariga T. The view of Jehovah's Witnesses on blood substitutes. Artif Cells Blood Substit Immobil Biotechnol 1998;26:571-576.