HOW CAN BLOOD SAVE YOUR LIFE?

Conclusion of RELIEVING LEGAL CONCERNS

Witnesses will also sign hospital consent forms. One used at a hospital in Freiburg, Germany, has space where the physician can describe the information he gave the patient about the treatment. Then, above the signatures of the physician and patient, this form adds:  "As a member of the religious body of the Jehovah's Witnesses, I categorically refuse the use of foreign blood or blood components during my surgery. I am aware that the planned and needed procedure thus has a higher risk due to bleeding complications. After receiving thorough explanation particularly about that, I request that the needed surgery be performed without using foreign blood or blood components." -Herz Kreislauf, August  1987. 

Actually, non-blood management may have a lower risk. But the point here is that Witness patients happily relieve any needless concerns so that the medical personnel can move forward  in doing what they are committed to do, helping people get well.  This cooperation benefits us all, as Dr. Angelos A. Kambouris showed in "Major Abdominal Operations on Jehovah's Witnesses": 

"Preoperative agreement should be viewed as binding by the surgeon and should be adhered to regardless of events developing during and after the operation.  [This] orients the patients positively toward their surgical treatment, and diverts the surgeon's attention from the legal and philosophical considerations to the surgical and technical ones, thus allowing him to  perform optimally and serve his patient's best interests." -The American Surgeon, June 1987.  

Next time: HOW CAN BLOOD SAVE YOUR LIFE?/RATHER THAN THE COURTS

From the Watchtower magazine