Jehovah Witness patients refusing any blood transfusion.. Why?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in none.

I'm very tolerant and respectful of my patients religious preferences. I work in a Cardiovascular ICU. My hospital is known for taking the sickest heart patients for open heart surgery. We've had situations where a Jehovah Witness patient who needed blood transfusion during a CABG or Post-op and eventually died because of their beliefs. I'm just curious what is the basis of that belief? If you are a nurse who is a Jehovah Witness or you know someone who is if you could please explain it to me i'll really appreciate it. Rather than criticize others and their religious beliefs i try to be understanding. The reason i'm asking this is, if you are going to have a CABG or any other Cardiac surgery there is a very high probabilty you may need blood products during the procedure or post op , why take such a risk if you don't want any blood products at all?

Specializes in ED, ICU, PACU.

A Jehovah Witness nurse I knew explained to me that their belief in having no blood transfusions has its basis on an interpretation of something in their Bible. They cannot even take their own blood (donate prior to surgery), unless it is kept in constant circulation (motion)-that is why they can receive dialysis. Theoretically, they could advance donate blood for use in an emergency if there was a way to keep the blood in constant motion while in the blood bank.

On a side note, they also believe that celebrations like birthdays, Christmas, New Years, etc (except for weddings and funerals) are in violation of the Commandments and constitute pagan rituals.

i hadnt heard that explanation.....i was under the impression that they considered it "eating" blood.....because we can be "fed" iv.....and eating blood is banned

Actually they cannot accept whole blood products (RBC, WBC, Plasma, Platelets) but can decide to take fractioned (Hgb, interferons, interleukins, Albumin, platelet fractions, and so on). Most of, if not all carry a card around stating this.

As the medical community changes the verbage of these products you will see new revisions to what they can and cannot take.

The reason they refuse is due to scripture that states,

"You must not eat the blood of any flesh." Leviticus 17:14

I attached a handout JWs get to help them understand what is and is not acceptable.

Reason I know is I had a cardiac patient who is a JW and I had to understand this position they are in.

Hope that helps

Specializes in OB, OR.

I, too, try to be understanding of other faiths, even those I don't understand, but I completely do not understand this.

Why take a short few-word passage from the scriptures and allow it to override common sense? To take a small passage like that, taken out of context, and allow it to become more important than what I consider a much more important tenant of christianity... sanctity of human life, and the respect for the great gift it is.

And, to split hairs even further, if they can interpret that scripture as "eating" blood during a transfusion, it would not be such a stretch to consider refusing blood products to save your life as "killing", thereby violating a much more important commandment, "thou shalt not kill".

I find picking and choosing from the scripture very dangerous. I always considered it spiritually dangerous, and now, I see it can be physically dangerous as well.

Specializes in Emergency.
I, too, try to be understanding of other faiths, even those I don't understand, but I completely do not understand this.

Why take a short few-word passage from the scriptures and allow it to override common sense? To take a small passage like that, taken out of context, and allow it to become more important than what I consider a much more important tenant of christianity... sanctity of human life, and the respect for the great gift it is.

And, to split hairs even further, if they can interpret that scripture as "eating" blood during a transfusion, it would not be such a stretch to consider refusing blood products to save your life as "killing", thereby violating a much more important commandment, "thou shalt not kill".

I find picking and choosing from the scripture very dangerous. I always considered it spiritually dangerous, and now, I see it can be physically dangerous as well.

But you also have to remember that the bible has been translated to English from its original language. So who know what it originally said. I do agree it is dangerous to pick and choose scripture interpretation but that why we have a lot of things that are going on in the world today. JW are not the only ones that do it. Look at you own faith, it more than likely interprets parts of the bible different than mine.

Specializes in OB, OR.

Yes, I'm Catholic, and my faith believes birth control is wrong. There are so many reasons that this is wrong in my eyes. Again, sanctity of human life. Having children you are unable to care for...limiting sexual relations in a marriage because of fear of pregnancy, thereby negatively affecting a sacrament (marriage).

My post was not exclusive of JW. It just happened to be the topic of this thread.

Specializes in cardiac/critical care/ informatics.

This is what I have found, this is from Acts

19 Hence my decision is not to trouble those from the nations who are turning to God, 20 but to write them to abstain from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. 21 For from ancient times Moses has had in city after city those who preach him, because he is read aloud in the synagogues on every sabbath.”

I found this in Wikipedia, it is amazing how simple it is too find information on the internet.

I have a really good friend that is JW. She explained it the same way as the first poster. There are other things that can be done other than blood transfusions, as was mentioned, to save their lives. My friend's sister died after surgery, they weren't aware of the other options and no one offered them. Some JWs know about them and others don't, I believe that it is up to the medical staff to be aware of the options and educate the patient, not just try to force their way on the patient.

There are health care liaisons associated with many Kingdom Halls (JW 'churches'), and larger hospitals may have their own blood avoidance specialists. I did a class presentation on blood avoidance, along with a JW classmate. It may seem odd to us that someone would refuse a life-saving treatment, but Jehovah's Witnesses believe that abstaining from blood is essential to their salvation. To put it another way, accepting blood products may save a person's life, but what is the point of having a longer life on Earth if they've damned their eternal soul by doing so?

Specializes in OB, OR.

To put it another way, accepting blood products may save a person's life, but what is the point of having a longer life on Earth if they've damned their eternal soul by doing so?

Interesting....never thought of it that way. But don't they believe in repentance?

Specializes in Family Practice, Mental Health.

Maybe someone knows the answer to this; If a Jehovah Witness DOES receive blood - either purposely or inadvertently, aren't they forever shunned by other Jehovah Witnesses? - Even if they're family? I thought that I had been told that by a Jehovah Witness patient one time. Is it true?

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