Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Jehovah's Witnesses' literature teaches that their refusal of transfusions of whole blood or its four primary components—red cells, white cells, platelets, and plasma—is a non-negotiable religious stand and that those who respect life as a gift from God do not try to sustain life by taking in blood, [5] [6] even in an emergency. [7]
The Supreme Court of Canada has made several important decisions concerning Jehovah's Witnesses.These include laws that affected the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in the 1950s and more recent cases dealing with whether Witness parents had the right to decide what medical treatment was in the best interest of their children based on their faith.
Jehovah's Witnesses are taught that the Bible prohibits the consumption, storage and transfusion of blood, based on their understanding of scriptures such as Leviticus 17:10, 11: "I will certainly set my face against the one who is eating the blood" and Acts 15:29: "abstain from … blood." This standpoint is applied even in emergencies.
It took her 18 years because McLeod and her husband are Jehovah's Witnesses and follow the practice of not accepting blood transfusions or any blood products for religious reasons.
Raymond Franz (1922–2010), writer of Crisis of Conscience, former member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses and critic of the institution. Jehovah's Witnesses have been criticized by adherents of mainstream Christianity, members of the medical community, former Jehovah's Witnesses, and commentators with regard to their beliefs and practices.
Since Jehovah’s Witnesses are not allowed to accept external blood products, their view on organ donation is complicated by the medical procedure itself. [8] Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that organ donation with no transfusion of blood is an individual decision. [2] [10]
Some Jehovah's Witnesses may accept prohibited blood products if medical confidentiality is upheld, [283] although Jehovah's Witnesses who work in a hospital may break such confidentiality. [284] Jehovah's Witness patients are generally open to non-blood alternative treatments, even if they are less effective.
Though Jehovah's Witnesses view "Abstinence from blood" to have health benefits, their basis for the belief is a spiritual rather than medical in nature. Their stand on blood has historically been to reject whole blood transfusions or any of the four major components of blood, ( red blood cells , white blood cells , plasma and platelets ).