The consequences of religious belief..

allnurses Guide · Sep 27, 2011

Children that need blood in an emergent situation get blood. There is no need to even stop and consider the courts/medical power of attorney etc at that time. This is a legal precedence that has been tried over and over again. You involve the courts afterward and get an emergency power of attorney if necessary, but in emergent situations the child's physical welfare comes first. Parents beliefs come second when a minor is involved. Especially when that minor is at an age/cognition where it would be reasonable they are unable to grasp life and death decision on their own.

The Jehovah's witness belief does allow for forgiveness of children when the blood transfusion were "forced" on them.

A competent adult is allowed to refuse any and all medical treatment.

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · Sep 27, 2011

i think i learn just as much on this forum as I do in class. I think my instructors should assign us all to have an account here

Oh my, another Endless September.....

sandi1743 · Sep 27, 2011

A competent adult is allowed to refuse any and all medical treatment.

so true. my job as a nurse is to explain/help them understand medical choices - even ones that i do not agree with. I may not like a choice, but i cannot make them do anything and that is a hard thing to keep in mind some days

collins anyiam · Sep 27, 2011

Acts 15:29
"that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; [a]if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell."
Leviticus 17:10
"And any man from the house of Israel, or from the aliens who sojourn among them, who eats any blood, I will set My face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people."
Genesis 9:4
"Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood."
Those are the passages that shaped their doctrine. Whether it is "misinterpreted" or not is not for me to decide nor do I need to be convinced of it to accept that someone else believes it is "bad" to accept blood.
I majored in judeo-christian theology and everyone "misinterprets" scripture. It's why some people go to church on Saturday, some eat pork while others do not, some do not cut their hair, some do not let women wear pants, some do not pray to figurines while some do, and so on. There is no misinterpretation. Only interpretation.

:yeah:for yourself. this is the same verse they keep bringing up. now look at that scripture again "

"that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and FROM BLOOD" some people give abstract meaning instead of contextual meaning to scriptures. the bible only speaks of idolatry here, and the use of blood to appease idols,while some spill the blood on the idols, some others drank the blood, thus the bible quotation about blood.

coming down to Leviticus 17:10, the bible says

"And any man from the house of Israel, or from the aliens who sojourn among them, WHO EATS ANY BLOOD, get it, it says " WHO EATS" and not who TRANSFUSES. what God meant here was telling the Israelites to abstain from idol worshiping. Besides, there was no technological advancement on blood transfusion at that time so to speak.

Genesis 9:4

"Only you shall NOT EAT flesh with its life, that is, its blood." the same thing applies, it says eat, again not transfuse, or better still use it to save life.

so this is total misinterpretation. someone just has to redeem these people, or they'll dieing.

rn/writer, RN · Sep 27, 2011

Staff request:

Some of the verses that JWs use to support their opposition to blood transfusions have been posted. Another interpretation has been provided as well. Since we now have had a point-counterpoint discussion, let's leave it at that and avoid derailing this thread.

The thread topic is not the rightness or wrongness of the belief. It's the difficulty of being a nurse and watching someone die who may well have lived had they gotten a transfusion. Please, confine posts to discussing how to handle the emotions and, at the same time, support the patient in their choice.

Thank you.

willowita, ADN, RN · Sep 27, 2011

OK, sorry I apologize. Poster was asking about the verses so I just posted.

sandi1743 · Sep 28, 2011

so this is total misinterpretation. someone just has to redeem these people, or they'll dieing.

honestly OP, it is not our job as nurses "to redeem" anyone - our job is to explain using the best medical reasons as to why we as medics are recommending a particular course of action. no matter how you disagree with them they should be respected as they are you fellow humans and you would want such respect for whatever values you hold near and dear. Yes, there is a huge difference between having a pt refuse a med and you taking the time to explain how the medicine would benefit them in the hopes that they maybe wiling to take it and this situation. JW know what medical science could do for them in some cases and mindfully do NOT do specific things. Do you not bother educating them? no, but you do your education and accept their decission and let the CN/PA/NP/Dr know what is going on. IMHO/E being dismissive of people and their medical choices is never good for your relationship with them for your shift(s).

I see people make decisions that *I* personally do not agree with all the time - but it is not my place to sit in judgement of them.

rn/writer, RN · Sep 28, 2011

OK, sorry I apologize. Poster was asking about the verses so I just posted.

No problem. It was good that we got to take a look at the verses used to support this doctrine along with an opposing viewpoint. That adds to our knowledge base. But now that we have gotten to see this information, further discussion in this vein (pardon the pun) is likely to take us away from the original topic.

Thank you for sharing the verses.