Witnesses do not choose to "let" anyone die and they don’t make “martyrs” out of their children. In fact, theyaccept non-blood transfusions and any other medical procedure that have proven benefits. But we do not accept for ourselves or our children medical procedures that have been proven to be at the very least ineffective, and often dangerous. THIS IS NO DIFFERENT THAN OTHER PARENTS.
EVERY parent must make life and death medical decisions for their children. Every operation, with or without the use of blood, has risks and no surgeon gives guarantees. The parents must logically weigh all the information.
Many people have bought into the fallacy that people die because they have refused blood transfusions. That is a falsehood promoted by fanatics who disseminate false and prejudicial information. Such critics promote ignorance by appealing to news stories (which are opinionated hearsay) claiming that someone died because he refused a blood transfusion. But the facts show that there is absolutely no proof that anyone has ever died because of refusing blood.
A Dr. Shadman said: "In performing upwards of 20,000 surgical operations, I never gave a blood transfusion and never had a patient die from lack of it..."
Dr. Aryeh Shander: "To say that one has died because of refusal of blood, I think is a very general misleading statement."
Dr. Peter Carmel: "It's rarely, if ever, the case that a patient refused a blood transfusion and therefore died."
Though presented as lifesaving, blood transfusions are fraught with risks. They have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of serious injuries! EDUCATED medical personnel know that there have been repeated studies that show the death rate and recurrence of cancers etc. is often three times worse when a patient receives a blood transfusion as compared with those who refused blood.
"The Center for Disease Control estimates that as many as 35,000 deaths and 500,000 illnesses a year may be due to the presence of serum hepatitis in blood for transfusions." This is the result of just one complication from blood transfusion. There are others mentioned in the book Complications in Surgery Management which adds: "In terms of disability and loss of life . . . blood transfusions rival some of our major health problems."
Using faulty and misleading information, enemies of Witnesses claim that "thousands" have supposedly died because of refusing blood, yet how does this compare to the millions who have died from being given blood in the same period of time?!
So, ACCORDING TO THE PROVEN FACTS, IT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED CHILD ABUSE FOR ANYONE TO ALLOW THEIR CHILDREN TO RECEIVE SUCH A DANGEROUS PROCEDURE.
Witnesses believe that obedience and loyalty to God is more sacred than life. In this we are imitating Christ because he was willing to die rather than disobey God. He also could have saved his life by calling on Angels (Mt 26:53). Christ showed that saving lives by disobeying God's requirements would incur condemnation (Lk.17:33; Jn.12:25; Mt. 16:25). If we try to save our life, or soul, by breaking God's law, we will lose it everlastingly.
We truly would be bloodguilty if we did not make God’s laws plain to our families (De.12:24,25; Ac.21:25; 1Cor.6:9-11).
While the main reason Christians do not accept blood transfusions is because it is one of God's moral laws, time has proven that true Christians have truly have been protected from death and injury caused by human ignorance.
SOURCE: This is an answer provided by BAR_ANERGES to a question at Yahoo Answers.
For more, see:
Blood / Blood Transfusions - Links to Information (Defend Jehovah's Witnesses)
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