just wondering..

my best friend (who moved v. far away from me) is a Jehovah's witness and her little brother had lukemia , however her family refused to let him have a blood transfusion , when it would have been beneficial to him to have it . I was just wondering if this was a decision made within the family itself or whether their religious beliefs changed the circumstances . If so , why was a blood transfusion not accepted ?

This site is a good one to learn the religious belief behind not accepting blood transfusions; http://www.religioustolerance.org/witness5.htm

The basics are as follows:-
Witness' beliefs and teachings about blood:

The Jehovah's Witnesses urges its members to refuse to accept blood transfusions and to not allow them to be given to their children. This is based upon four passages in the Bible which they interpret as prohibiting the consuming of blood:
[FONT=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]Genesis 9:4 "But flesh (meat) with...blood...ye shall not eat"[/FONT][FONT=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]Leviticus 17:12-14 "...No soul of you shall eat blood...whosoever eateth it shall be cut off"[/FONT][FONT=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]Acts 15:29 "That ye abstain...from blood..."[/FONT][FONT=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]Acts 21:25 "...Gentiles...keep themselves from things offered to idols and from blood..."[/FONT][FONT=trebuchet ms,arial,helvetica]
The faith group once interpreted "eating" of blood in its most general form to include accepting "transfusion of whole blood, packed [red blood cells] RBCs, and plasma, as well as [white blood cells] WBC and platelet administration." L.C. Cotton, associate director of Jehovah's Witnesses hospital information services, said: "We feel that the Bible clearly indicates that blood is sacred and it is not to be used for human consumption. Though it doesn't discuss it in medical terms, Jehovah's Witnesses feel that would preclude the acceptance of it in a blood transfusion." 18 Essentially all other Christian and Jewish faith groups interpret these same passages as referring to dietary laws; i.e. to the actual eating of meat containing blood.
Witnesses are also urged to "discontinue their chemotherapy treatments when platelet transfusions are needed." 2 Because Witnesses believe that any blood that leaves the body must be destroyed, they do not approve of an individual storing his own blood for a later auto-transfusion. 3
There appears to be a significant movement within the medical community to minimize or eliminate blood transfusions during surgery. 8,9,10
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confuzzled said:

my best friend (who moved v. far away from me) is a Jehovah's witness and her little brother had lukemia , however her family refused to let him have a blood transfusion , when it would have been beneficial to him to have it . I was just wondering if this was a decision made within the family itself or whether their religious beliefs changed the circumstances . If so , why was a blood transfusion not accepted ?

Click to expand...

Why Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions is widely available online. If the little boy is a minor, then I see no reason why a judge cannot order a blood transfusion because the boy has no consent, particularly if he does want the transfusion. The basis of course is child abuse.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/witness5.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_and_blood

A few news reports that I found where a judge ordered a transfusion for a minor:

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=481072005
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=23700

Transfusion-Alternative Strategies—Simple, Safe, Effective
Thousands of physicians around the world are now successfully treating patients without using blood transfusions. Meeting Patient Needs and Rights

No Blood—Medicine Meets the Challenge

I Accepted God's View of Blood
Learn how the Bible influenced a Japanese physician to change his views on blood transfusions.

It's not just Jehovah's witnesses, A two-year-old boy from Melbourne, Florida, died in his parents' arms from multiple yellow jacket stings. His parents, Christian Scientists, refused medical treatment, opting to rely only on the healing power of faith and prayer.

This family was close to us. My sister's husband used to be roomates with the father of this child, and they had even had arguements about his thoughts on docters being the devil's work, and such.

The Johnson family was also friends with another family who had not reported the death of their child, and had performed their own cremation for the child. Two families, dead babies, and not JW. How can anyone look at their child covered with over 200 yellow jackets welps, not take them for medical treatment? I just cannot fathom that at all. And I knew this guy, I really thought he was all talk when he said if he broke his leg he would not go to the doctor. We tried to tell him that a doctor only sets the leg, it's still God that does the healing and mending of the bone. I was just completely dumbfounded that he or the mother, could let a little child suffer like that in a technologicaly advanced country. Absolutely unbelievable.

JW do accept medical treatment, as the above links make known , our beliefs are based on the bible ,not our own understanding . we always go to the hospital and doctors . but at the end of the day we do as the bible commands us to , and that is ............... to abstain from blood .............. there are many treatments around ....For the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to YOU, except these necessary things, 29 to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication. If YOU carefully keep yourselves from these things, YOU will prosper. Good health to YOU! Acts 15;28-29 if a doctor told me to abstain from achohol ,would it be ok to inject it into my viens? or would he mean dont have it at all

Plus if you sincerely believe that the Bible is Gods word, you would think that Jehovah God knows what is best for us, therefore you would except what God says at Act15;28-29 At the end of the day, it is up to you as an indervidual to make choices in life.

May, i love that quote from the 'Bible Teach Book' .. ' If a doctor told me to abstain from alcohol, would it be ok to inject it into my veins?'