Yes they do, and not only spiritually, though that is always the first priority in their lives.
Take the medical care they give to their "flock". True, they don't have any hospitals of their own, but they do have, and have for decades, a medical committee, called the "Hospital Liaison Committee".
The main purpose of this committee has been to collect medical data, especially in relation ot the blood isssue.
Have you noticed how rarely the blood issue with the headlines now? That is because for at least 25 years now the Health authorities have started to admit the real dangers of using blood in medical procedures, and by cooperating with the Hospital Liaison Committee, have developed methods of bloodless surgery which have proved to be superior to any method using blood. The drawbacks? Well there is really only one. These methods do demand a greater degree of skill on the part of the surgeons to reduce blood loss in the first place. However, should a surgeon not be good enough and conscientious enough to do that anyway?
You might find the following links interesting.
This one I find particularly interesting because in it's title it acknowledges that JW's are not the only ones who refuse Blood and Blood components. Of course I already knew that because my mother, a practising CoE said she would never take another persons blood into her body. I never really found out if that determination was due to her younger brother's death of heamophilia.
https://www.mkgeneral.nhs.uk/uploads/documents/path-gl-4.pdf
Interestingly it also lists exactly the JW stand on blood and blood components, especially exactly which things a re scriptural no-no, and which are up to individual conscience.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_and_blood_transfusions#Hospital_Liaison_Committees
My father found out the hard way about the unpublicised dangers of blood transfusions, because, as the doctors declared, rather sheepishly, the only way the metastatic cancer cells could have got into his body was through a blood transfusion he had been given for his pulmonary Oedema. Since in a thorough autopsy they were unable to find any trace of a primary cancer which would normally be necessary for the production of Metastatic cells. However they did find that there was not one part of his body that was unaffected. Because of my fathers experience the blood issue has become as much a health campaign as a religious one for me.
https://www.aagbi.org/sites/default/files/jehovah.pdf
Of course whether you will be interested in reading these things or not depends or whether you wish to know the truth or are simply bigotted against the JWs.
Jan 02, 2012 @ 11:23:49
