There is a lot of ignorance promoted by many regarding blood transfusions. Then you have the religious clergy and other FANATICS who purposely disseminate false and prejudicial information designed to emotionally alienate people. In this day and age it is extremely surprising when we find anyone in the medical field who adamantly defends blood transfusions. In fact, such a person would find themselves arguing against 'enlightened' medical experts who are up on the latest information regarding blood transfusions.You will always find some biased individuals who claim that people [are] dying because they refused a blood transfusion, but the facts show that it cannot be proven that anyone ever died because of refusing a blood transfusion. Critics usually resort to citing these news stories which are just opinionated hearsay.
These opinions are flawed because they ignore the fact that avoiding blood transfusions does not mean that someone is going to lose his life. In fact, when you look at the facts regarding the dangers involved in accepting blood, the hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of serious injuries which have been caused by blood transfusions, then you can only conclude that the protection Jehovah's Witnesses have received because of their obedience far outweighs any risk. Notice the comments of three experts:
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."
One doctor by the name of 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..."
Witnesses do accept non-blood transfusions and any other medical procedure that have proven benefits. 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.
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 when 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. However, there are others which are mentioned in the book Complications in Surgery Management. This book then adds: "In terms of disability and loss of life . . . blood transfusions rival some of our major health problems."
"The bloodletting of yore has been superseded by blood transfusion. Of all the ridiculous medical practices of the past and present times, this present blood craze is the worst." - -Dr. G. Boni and Dr. P.Lafarge, "Let's Live", March 1970
"If blood was a new drug it wouldn't receive a product licence."--Tom Lennard, Royal Victoria Infirmary
God has said "I, Jehovah, am your God, the One teaching you to benefit yourself" (Isa 48:17). His laws are always for our good. 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.
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[Additional]
First, even when the accepted “gold standard” therapies are transfusions of major components, there are still alternatives. And there is ongoing research into viable alternatives to plasma exchange for TTP. Witnesses have been successfully treated for TTP without blood, one case which has been widely reported:
http://www.noblood.org/medical-articles-abstracts/3633-thrombotic-thrombocytopenic-purpura-induced-trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole-jeh/#.UtS2Y55dUuc
Second, it is highly illogical to argue for the safety and benefits of blood transfusions by appealing to an extremely rare condition (TTP) which is treated with plasma. This type of logic is like arguing for the benefits of the medieval medical practice of Blood-letting because bleeding someone will save their life if they have Polycythemia vera. The fact remains: As a rule, blood-letting is archaic and bad medicine and so is [a] blood transfusion.
[Opposers who] desperately cite such an extremely rare condition do not change the fact that blood transfusions are fraught with risks and so are considered to be bad medicine and avoided by enlightened medical experts.
Third and even more important, while [opposers] choose to blatantly ignore and even deny the clear and undeniable Scriptural command to “abstain from blood,” true Christians do not.
Christians do not accept a treatment which breaks God’s Laws simply because it may be the “best” treatment that humans can give. Such reasoning is purely human thinking and a rejection of God’s thinking on the matter. Such reasoning would also condemn the early Christians who died at the hands of the Romans because they refused to save their lives by simply performing a simple act of devotion to the Emperors. The reasoning of Anti-Christians would be exactly like [opposers']: Rejecting God’s laws is “in your best interest,” and “is appropriate by all human logic.”
True Christians would not save their lives by committing fornication or idolatry which are listed with blood as equally forbidden. Likewise, Christian do not save their lives by accepting blood but rather do all they can to save their life while continuing to obey God’s explicit laws.
Additionally, [opposers who] reference “bleeding to death” is so overly simple as to be laughable. If you don’t stop the bleeding, no amount of blood transfusions will save you either. When someone refuses a blood transfusion, the premise is that someone is being treated. There is a limit to the amount of blood that can be lost by any individual, and then with or without a blood transfusion you are going to die.
However, the medical facts are that studies have proved that the mortality rate for people with surprisingly low blood counts is no worse for those who choose non-blood treatment in comparison to those who chose blood. These studies are the reason that it cannot be proven that anyone ever died because of refusing a blood transfusion. However, it is irrefutable that hundreds of thousands of people have died as a direct result of receiving blood transfusions. And transfusions continue to kill and injure tens of thousands each year.
“One way to avert the risks and costs of blood transfusion is simply to avoid the procedure whenever possible. Avoidance is usually fairly safe and well tolerated even for patients with a low hemoglobin level, stated Aryeh Shander, MD, Chief of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in New Jersey.
Acutely low hemoglobin value has no central nervous system effects and is associated with acceptable cardiac outcomes as long as the patient is euvolemic, closely monitored, and not tachycardic. Furthermore, said Dr. Shander, it is possible to maintain tissue oxygen tension even after a 60% drop in hemoglobin, as long as the patient is perfused with a high viscosity fluid or colloid. He added that healthy individuals have been shown not to develop oxygen supply dependency when their hemoglobin falls from 13 g/dL to 4.5 or 5 g/dL.”
[Opposers] hear only what they want to from the experts and ignore anything that disagrees with [their] personal opinion.
Dr. Aryeh Shander has also said: "Everything in health care can be done without blood (transfusions)."
SOURCE: This is an answer provided by BAR_ANERGES to a question at Yahoo Answers.
For more, see:
Blood / Blood Transfusions (Category)
Why don’t Jehovah’s Witnesses accept blood transfusions? (JW.ORG)
Why Do Jehovah's Witnesses Refuse Blood Transfusions? (Defend Jehovah's Witnesses)
Blood Transfusions - Jehovah's Witnesses Do Not Choose to "Let Their Children Die" as Some Opposers Claim (Defend Jehovah's Witnesses)
Why Do Jehovah's Witnesses "Abstain From Blood"? (Defend Jehovah's Witnesses)
Is it Scripturally Acceptable for a Christian to Accept a Bone Marrow Transplant? (Defend Jehovah's Witnesses)
Do Jehovah's Witnesses Eat Red Meat Since it May Contain a Trace of Blood? (Defend Jehovah's Witnesses)
Articles, Websites and Videos Concerning Bloodless Surgery and Medicine (Defend Jehovah's Witnesses)
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