Jehovah’s Witnesses and Blood
This section addresses some of the issues that confront doctors who treat Jehovah’s Witnesses and their children – particularly the ethical issues. Physicians are often troubled by the beliefs and misinformation their Jehovah’s Witness patients have about blood as well as the shifting and irrational aspects of the Watchtower Society’s blood policy. Here you will find tools to help you better communicate with your patient, establish informed consent, provide for their welfare and help them make autonomous choices.
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Refusal of potentially life-saving blood transfusions by Jehovah’s Witnesses: should doctors explain that not all JWs think it’s religiously required? – Raanan Gillon, Editor – Journal of Medical Ethics
Bioethics of the refusal of blood by Jehovah’s Witnesses: Part 1. Should bioethical deliberation consider dissidents’ views? – Osamu Muramoto/Journal of Medical Ethics
Bioethics of the refusal of blood by Jehovah’s Witnesses: Part 2. A novel approach based on rational non-interventional paternalism. – Osamu Muramoto/Journal of Medical Ethics
Bioethics of the refusal of blood by Jehovah’s Witnesses: Part 3. A proposal for a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy. – Osamu Muramoto/Journal of Medical Ethics. – Osamu Muramoto/Journal of Medical Ethics
Bioethical aspects of the recent changes in the policy of refusal of blood by Jehovah’s Witnesses – Osamu Muramoto/British Medical Journal. Note: The responses to this article amount to a thorough debate of the issue among Jehovah’s Witness representatives and are very insightful.
Medical confidentiality and the protection of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ autonomous refusal of blood. – Osamu Muramoto/Journal of Medical Ethics
Why some Jehovah’s Witnesses accept blood and conscientiously reject official Watchtower Society blood policy – Lee Elder/Journal of Medical Ethics
Click on the link below each excerpt to read the entire article.
When Belief Meets Survival: Understanding the Psychological Dynamics of Jehovah’s Witness Blood Refusal
When Belief Meets Survival: Understanding the Psychological Dynamics of Jehovah's Witness Blood Refusal Abstract When obtaining informed consent from Jehovah's Witness patients for treatments involving blood products, clinicians may encounter seemingly incongruent,...
Navigating Blood Refusal: A Clinical Guide to Jehovah’s Witness Patients and Watchtower Policy
Jehovah’s Witnesses are widely known for their conscientious objection to blood transfusions, a position rooted in their interpretation of biblical commands to “abstain from blood” (Acts 15:28–29). However, the current policy maintained by the Watch Tower Bible and...
A Life-Threatening Upbringing
By Beninu Andersen I am a 4th generation Jehovah's Witness who disassociated 18 years ago in 2001. My father was a major figure in the organization—a computer science professor who developed software for translating the New World Translation into Danish and other...
Blood, Vaccines and Organ Transplants
What follows is a collection of quotes from Watchtower Society literature. This information will help you understand the development of the blood, vaccine, and organ transplant doctrine and document the many changes in policy through the years. Quotes are presented in...
Straight from the Doctor
Jehovah's Witnesses and Blood Transfusions: Questions Answered by Dr. John Doyle, MD, PhD This Q&A aims to address common concerns held by Jehovah's Witnesses about blood transfusions, presented with sensitivity to religious beliefs and grounded in medical...
Organ Transplants
As with blood, the Watchtower Society (WTS) originally had no objections to organ transplants. In a Questions from Readers section in The Watchtower, Aug. 1, 1961, page 480, the question about organ transplants is answered pointedly: "Is there anything in the Bible...
Blood Transfusions – What are the risks?
The typical Jehovah's Witness believes that blood transfusions are bad medicine and the equivalent of playing Russian Roulette. They have been so thoroughly indoctrinated about the risks by the Watchtower Society that the mere thought is abhorrent to many of them....
Components of Blood are the Issue
By Dieter Parczany During the early 1990's, I was a member of the Hospital Liaison Committee (HLC) in Berlin, Germany. Since I was a Jehovah’s Witness elder with special training and knowledge about Watchtower's blood policies, I served as the chairman of the...
Hematologist Helps Open the Eyes of Pregnant JW
I looked forward to the birth of my third child. I had decided on a surgical birth (my third cesarean). Since each subsequent cesarean is more likely to become complicated, I would be at a higher risk of blood loss during and after the operation, and as an active...
The Watchtower’s Medical Expert
Article contributed by S. Sparrow The January 2000 issue of the Awake! magazine, published by the Watchtower Society Bible and Tract Society of New York and distributed worldwide, featured articles endorsing bloodless surgery and promoting bloodless medicine as a safe...