The HLC letter to nurses and doctors about transfusions
I created this post yesterday about a recent Zoom meeting my wife attended with the regional HLC, and explained that the HLC is continuing to tell JW nurses and doctors that they may not administer blood transfusions in their line of work, even though current, publicly-available written direction from the org still states that it IS permissible.
Rumor has been that HLC received a letter a few years ago with this new direction, but I haven't seen that letter anywhere. It was referenced on the Zoom meeting, though not provided visually or otherwise, but a helpful PIMO elder recently provided me this letter. I'm not at liberty to share an image of it, though I do have that, but I'll share the text of it here. PM me if you'd like additional information.
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Letterhead: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
Hospital Information Desk, 900 Red Mills Road, Wallkill, NY 12589-3223
June 15, 2018
TO ALL HOSPITAL LIAISON COMMITTEES
Re: Administering a Blood Transfusion When Directed by a Superior
Dear Brothers:
We would like to inform you of an updated policy with regard to whether a Christian may administer a blood transfusion if he is directed to do so by a superior. The previous policy was that it would be a matter for personal, conscientious decision whether to obey such an order. However, after carefully reviewing the matter, the Governing Body has determined that administering such a transfusion is so closely linked with an unscriptural practice that one unquestionably becomes an accomplice in a wrong practice. Therefore, it would not be appropriate for a Christian to administer a blood transfusion under any circumstance.—Gen. 9:4; Acts 15:28,29.
A Christian who is a nurse or a doctor respects the Scriptures and therefore would not recommend, order, or administer a blood transfusion. How a brother or sister will handle matters so as not to violate the Scriptures would be something to decide personally, bearing responsibility for the consequences of that decision. The possibility that a penalty might be imposed for noncompliance with orders from a superior would not be justification for a Witness to break God’s law.
What if a Witness who is an employee and is not responsible for deciding the matter is directed by a superior to draw blood for a test or to carry out other routine services for a non-Witness blood-transfusion patient? The Witness can make a personal, conscientious decision whether to obey.
You may inform Witness doctors and nurses of this decision.
We send our warm Christian love.
Your brothers,
Watchtower B.&T. Society of New York, Inc.
c: Circuit Overseers
6/15/18-E
Posted Mar 15, 2022, 3:16 PM UTC · edited
A couple of my own thoughts about this letter:
As my post yesterday stated, I'm personally invested in this because my PIMI wife is a nurse who administers transfusions in her line of work. She's been working under the current written direction that administering a doctor-ordered transfusion is allowed, but when the HLC informed her a few days ago that that is no longer correct, she's now preparing to inform her boss that she will no longer administer transfusions, possibly putting her job and license at risk, and at a minimum, losing some respect from her colleagues who understand that a transfusion is a scientifically-supported intervention in many cases.
Don’t ask. And definitely she doesn’t have to tell. HIPAA
Except when someone is PIMI the GB’s word is gold.
It's just so very sad that people are still so subjugated by this organization, so reliant on their every direction that they simply cannot act on their own conscience. My heart breaks every time I read posts like this.
And yet it’s not. Only the Bible is gold or supposed to be
So the GB changes the Bible and quotes it out of context.
Yup. Say nothing and business as usual.
The HLC can pound sand.
This is shocking. People are treated like infants with a total lack of respect and human dignity. No explanations or reasoning from scriptures given. They think that by ending a paragraph with 'Gen. 9:4; Acts 15:28,29' they are saying God is giving them the seal of approval to their decision.
So, are they really going to disfellowship a nurse for administering a blood transfusion? I only wish that would happen so it would make the news and put this on the spotlight where it belongs.
That’s the great part: regular elders don’t have this letter and so would have no basis to DF someone for administering a transfusion. There’s no enforcement possible on this policy right now.
A person who accepts a blood transfusion is not DFd. WTC has so many standards that it is hard to take them seriously anymore.
They are considered Disassociated, which is the same by all means and purposes.
Not true. I knew a man who was DF'd on his literal deathbed for accepting a blood transfusion. Think about that for a minute. He was laying in his hospital bed, dying, hoping to hold on long enough to see his kids one last time, and the elders DF'd him.
They aren’t? I understand they aren’t if it’s presented as being pushed on them, but if they willfully accept it and it somehow gets back to elders…
There is no enforcement for a lot of things unless you tell on yourself. Including even getting a transfusion.
This is weirdly disappointing even though very little changes. Let's make the few medical professionals in the country that are JWs, worse at their jobs. Cool.
Pikuach nefesh (Hebrew: פקוח נפש 'watching over a soul') is the principle in Jewish law that the preservation of human life overrides virtually any other religious rule” (wiki) and that is what Jesus did teach when he advocated saving a donkey on the sabbath. The lesson was that if it was allowable to break the law of the sabbath to save even the life of a donkey, how much more reasonable to save a humans life and break a law for that purpose.
Medical organizations will feel that jw are a liability
Only nurse in the room patients needs blood Dr orders blood
Jw -says no Dr -last week you gave 15 patients blood What happened
Jw -God changed his mind this week
Yep, that's going to be my wife's situation when she talks to her boss about it.