Blood
Main article: Jehovah's Witnesses and blood transfusions See also: Criticism of Jehovah's WitnessesJehovah'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 even set my face against that soul that eateth blood," and Acts 15:29: "abstain from ... blood." This standpoint is applied even in emergencies. The Watchtower introduced this view in 1945, and it has developed since then. Accordingly, the organization has established Hospital Information Services (HIS), which provides education and facilitation of bloodless surgery. This service also maintains Hospital Liaison Committees, which support adherents facing surgery and provide information to the medical community on bloodless surgery techniques and alternatives to blood.
Though accepted by most members, some within the Jehovah's Witness community do not endorse the doctrine. The doctrine has drawn criticism from members of the medical community.
Read more about this topic: Jehovah's Witnesses Practices
Famous quotes containing the word blood:
“The blood of Abraham, God’s father of the chosen, still flows in the veins of Arab, Jew, and Christian, and too much of it has been spilled in grasping for the inheritance of the revered patriarch in the Middle East. The spilled blood in the Holy Land still cries out to God—an anguished cry for peace.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Later,
when blood and eggs and breasts
dropped onto me,
Daddy and his whiskey breath
made a long midnight visit
in a dream that is not a dream....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“by noon
the whole city in all its corruption,
all its shed blood the monsoon cannot wash away,
has become a temple,
fragile, insolent, absolute.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)