Making A Choice
A young Jehovah’s Witness has died after refusing a blood transfusion after giving birth to twins. It is, obviously, a terribly sad occasion for the entire family, especially since it should have been such a joyous one.
But they - and she - made a choice, their choice, with the full knowledge of the dangers. We can say that it is stupid etc. all we like, but the choice can only be made by her, her husband, and her immediate family. It is not up to us to approve or disapprove of their perfectly legitimate life choices. They have chosen to follow a particular faith that does not allow blood trandfusion, and chose to die rather than break it - a decision that I am sure was not taken lightly.
She, and they, amde their choice. We can certainly consider it wrong and stupid - and I do. But it was her choice to make, not mine or anyone elses. She had chosen to sign a piece of paper refusing any blood transfusion, and no-one has the right to break that, except maybe her husband if she was incapable at that point in time.
What if she had been given a blood tranfusion? How would she have felt if her right to choose to refuse treatment was overruled? We don’t know - but her husband and family might. And they chose not to break her wishes.
Her body, her faith, her life, her choice.
Source: BBC
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Thank you, ThunderDragon. You are absolutely right in what you say. I agree completely.
This WatchTower Society requirement that Jehovah’s Witnesses must refuse to accept any blood transfusions dates back only to 1945. Misinterpreting the Old Testament prohibition against eating animal blood as a routine food item, the WatchTower Society began teaching in 1945 that receiving a blood transfusion was “eating human blood”. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that receiving an infusion of human blood into their body’s circulatory system is scientifically the exact same thing as eating or ingesting blood into their body’s digestive system.
“A patient in the hospital maybe fed through the mouth, through the nose, or through the veins. When sugar solutions are given intravenously it is called intravenous feeding. So the hospital’s own terminology recognizes as feeding the process of putting nutrition into one’s system via the veins. Hence the attendant administering the transfusion is feeding the patient through the veins, and the patient receiving it is eating through his veins.” — The WATCHTOWER magazine, July 1, 1951.
Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse to acknowledge that when human blood is transfused into their body’s circulatory system that the transfused human blood remains to be human blood and continues to function as human blood. Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse to acknowledge that if blood is eaten, then the ingested blood enters the body’s digestive system, where the blood would be treated by the body exactly the same as it would treat a hotdog, a potato chip, or any other food item. Ingested blood would be completely digested and broken down into proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and waste; which are then either assimilated or excreted by the body.
The WatchTower Society uses scriptures which speak about the blood of slaughtered animals to teach Jehovah’s Witnesses that blood is “sacred” because blood is the “symbol of life”. Then, the WatchTower Society turns around and requires Jehovah’s Witnesses to sacrifice their own “life” to maintain the alleged “sacredness” of a “symbol” of the very thing they are sacrificing — their life. Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse to acknowledge that the WatchTower doctrine on blood moronically places a higher value on the SYMBOL than it does on the THING SYMBOLIZED.
In fact, the Old Testament scriptures permitted the eating of unbled animal meat, which the Bible treats exactly the same as eating animal blood itself. In isolated occasions, when humans needed to eat unbled meat in order to sustain their own human life, the Mosaic Law permitted such, but then required the eaters to fulfill the requirements of being “unclean” for a few days. Thus, the Bible recognized that the sustaining of human life was more “sacred” than maintaining the sacredness of animal blood. To do otherwise would be doing exactly what the moronic WatchTower Society does. It would make the SYMBOL more SACRED than the THING SYMBOLIZED.
In fact, the WatchTower Society is leading Jehovah’s Witnesses to disobey GOD and violate the Holy Scriptures in one of the most serious ways possible. Because humans were created in GOD’s image, GOD considers human life sacred. A Jehovah’s Witness who sacrifices their SACRED LIFE in order to maintain the sacredness of a SYMBOL of that SACRED LIFE varies little from those who profane life by committing suicide. Those Jehovah’s Witness Elders who teach and police this moronic doctrine vary little from common accessories to murder. The Bible is fairly clear in how GOD views murder, and how He deals with Murderers.
This moronic twisting of scripture would be laughable if not for the fact that it has lead to the pointless deaths of numerous Jehovah’s Witnesses in the past, and it will continue to lead to the pointless deaths of many more Jehovah’s Witnesses in the future.
SUMMARIES OF 300 JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES LAWSUITS & COURT CASES
The following website summarizes over 315 U.S. court cases and lawsuits affecting children of Jehovah’s Witness Parents, including 200+ cases where the JW Parents refused to consent to life-saving blood transfusions for their dying children:
DIVORCE, BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS, AND OTHER LEGAL ISSUES AFFECTING CHILDREN OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES
http://jwdivorces.bravehost.com
Anonymous, my post is about choice. They make the choice to be Jehovah Witnesses and follow their customs. No matter whether they are wrong in what they do doesn’t matter in the slightest to me.
The accuracy of their interpretation of the Bible doesn’t matter. It is their choice to interpret it in a certain way.
Whether they are theologically wrong or not doesn’t matter in the slightest in this case. All that matters is that it was her choice.
I disagree, that choice they made is a form of abuse in today’s society. This isn’t about choice. They allowed life to be taken away. To refuse life saving medical treatment should not have been the choice of the parents, they were clouded by religion. Since when does medicine have anything to do with religion. Those twins weren’t Jehovas Witnesses, the parents were, the twins had their parents wishes forced on them.
The parents are guilty of serious abuse.
I misread the post! Still she should have had choice taken away from her, that’s suicide!
The kids aren’t dead, anonymous - the mother is. They wouldn’t be allowed to force their beliefs on to their kids healthcare, I don’t think, since that would be abuse and would get the kids taken away from them.
It’s not suicide either, or else there wouldn’t be any Jehovah Witness mothers. And they’re not likely to condone suicide either.
What would have happened had they forcefully given her a blood transfusion and she had lived? I think it is far more likely that then she would have been considering suicide. certainly it would screw her up big time.
We can’t say “you can’t choose to do that with your own body” because that is authoritarian. She has the right and ability to make her own choices, and so should be able to. No matter what they may be. We may disagree with them - and I do - but it is her choice to make, not ours.