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It may seem surprising that while the Watchtower Society (WTS) claims that its sole reason for banning blood transfusions is the Bible, the majority of its writings on the blood issue are concerned with "medical arguments" against blood transfusions. The religious arguments are handled in a few paragraphs at the start of an article, even in publications dedicated solely to this question, and the rest of the material argues endlessly about the dangers of blood transfusions.

In its quest to "prove" how dangerous blood transfusions are, the WTS receives much help from medical journals and newspaper articles. It follows from the very nature of medical activities that transfusions are dangerous. After all, blood transfusions are administered to persons who are in mortal danger. If a person were not on the verge of dying from disease or injury, the complicated procedure of transfusing blood from another human would not be undertaken. Blood is, after all, a liquid organ, and a blood transfusion is an organ transplant. People are unique individuals, and the dangers of organ transplants are outlined in great detail in serious medical journals. In the pages where medical professionals are urging each other to caution, WTS writers can find an endless supply of quotations. By judiciously combining these they create the impression that taking a blood transfusion is only slightly less dangerous than Russian roulette:

..."a bottle of blood is a bomb."..."...donating blood can be compared to sending a loaded gun to an unsuspecting or unprepared person...." - Jehovah's Witnesses and the Question of Blood, 1977, p. 41

"'A Loaded Gun'

• "The American public is continually warned about the hazards of drunk driving, smoking, cancer, narcotics, etc.," notes "Oasis," a magazine published for employees of the U.S. Social Security Administration. "But," it continues, "have you ever seen a warning dealing with blood transfusions? There is ample information available on hazards of transfusions . . . in medical journals and such, but very few, if any, warnings. Sure, every transfusion may not result in a reaction or disease, but as one author stated on the subject, ‘it is like playing liquid Russian roulette.’ Every drunk driver does not cause a death or accident, everyone that smokes does not develop lung cancer, . . . not every loaded gun kills, but we are still warned about the potential dangers. . . . anyone who administers a blood transfusion should, like the Surgeon General warns about smoking, warn the participants that transfusions are dangerous to your health, as dangerous as a loaded gun." (The Watchtower, June 1, 1976, p. 336, bold in original; note that same expression "Russian roulette" is also used in The Watchtower, July 15, 1975, p. 445; Awake! April 8, 1991, p. 29; Oct. 22, 1990, p. 9)

To uphold the idea that blood transfusions are virtually suicidal would require us to believe that the whole medical profession – the people who work with, conduct research on and administer blood transfusions – are either ignorant of its dangers or cynically ignore them to satisfy some sadistic desire to give blood transfusions. The WTS has not held back from imputing these bad motives to health professionals, even claiming that they are controlled by Satan:

"The faith of Jehovah’s Witnesses is under attack from all sides — by the clergy of Christendom who hate the Kingdom message we take from house to house, by apostates who collaborate with Christendom’s clergy, by medical authorities who want to impose blood transfusions on us and our children, by atheistic scientists who reject belief in God and the creation, and by those who try to force us to compromise our neutrality. All this opposition is orchestrated by Satan, the ruler of darkness and ignorance, the enemy of accurate knowledge." (The Watchtower, Dec. 1, 1989, p. 12; emphasis ours)

From articles like the one above it is easy to see that the source for the opposition to medical use of blood is not a well thought out consideration of the risks, but the idea that Jehovah’s Witnesses are part of a cosmic struggle between God and Satan. Instead of realizing that the majority of health professionals are honest, hard-working people who want to save lives, the WTS  tells us that they are under Satanic influence when they want to "impose blood transfusions" on us.

We do not need to down play any of the real dangers of blood transfusions. Like any complicated medical operation, blood transfusions can be dangerous. But just as the WTS has written endless articles on the dangers of blood, anyone could write such articles on the dangers of antibiotics, open heart surgery, psychiatric drugs and even tonsillectomies, complete with quotations from credible and not-so-credible sources. No person in his right mind would suggest that these medical practices be abandoned, even though the details and frequency of using the various methods are subject to serious debate among professionals.