The inconsequent position on the basic components of blood
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The Watchtower Society lists the four basic components of blood and teaches that accepting any of them “violates God’s law”:
Today, most transfusions are not of whole blood but of one of its primary components: (1) red cells; (2) white cells; (3) platelets; (4) plasma (serum), the fluid part. Depending on the condition of the patient, physicians might prescribe red cells, white cells, platelets, or plasma. Transfusing these major components allows a single unit of blood to be divided among more patients. Jehovah’s Witnesses hold that accepting whole blood or any of those four primary components violates God’s law. (The Watchtower June 15, 2004 pp. 29-30).
Yet, in another publication, Jehovah’s Witnesses state in details about one of the forbidden blood component, i.e. plasma. It seems that this was the only time they went into that level of details. Let’s see what they wrote and then assess how it can harm anything….
Blood fractions are elements from blood that are extracted through a process called fractionation. For example, plasma, one of the four major components of blood, can be divided into the following substances: water, about 91 percent; proteins, such as albumins, globulins, and fibrinogen, about 7 percent; and other substances, such as nutrients, hormones, gases, vitamins, waste products, and electrolytes, about 1.5 percent. Are fractions also covered by the command to abstain from blood? We cannot say. The Bible does not give specific direction on the subject of fractions. (Our Kingdom Ministry No. 11, 2006 p. 3).
Can receiving water, proteins and other substances be a real “violation” of anything? Which of those fractions, taken all together, are so harmful to the Watchtower Society that by using them one violates “God’s law”?
The same could be said about the other three components of blood.
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