Leviticus 7:26 You are not to eat any blood, either of bird or animal, in any of your dwellings. (NASB)

As you may know, Jehovah’s Witnesses have interpreted this as meaning that God has forbidden blood transfusions. This is despite the fact that transfusions often save lives. The basis of this is that sustenance can be administered intravenously, so in the broadest sense, receiving a transplant, could be seen in their eyes as “eating blood”.

Other, even vaguer verses are used to support this position, such as:

Acts 21:25 But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.”

Most people would look at the context and see that this is connected with pagan worship, which is why to try and support a ban on transfusions, it is necessary to take things out of context!

The argument falls down when it is appreciated that food administered intravenously is consumed by the body, whereas blood is used by the body.

In simple terms that I can understand, I think of a human body as a country with the veins and arteries as the rail network! The blood is the train with 8 carriages which takes food and other important commodities to where they are required.

JWs try to get round their ban on transfusions by injecting blood components one at a time, which they say is not blood. In my analogy, this is like shipping the parts for a locomotive and assembling it by the track. It is still the means of transporting the food, not the food itself.

One can only think how many faithful believers and their children had to die unnecessarily before the loophole was devised, but this is a sad, tragic example of what happens when we do not follow this Bible principle:

Deuteronomy 4:2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you.

There are reasons why you might not want to have a transfusion, such as risk of contamination and the medical profession may well have alternatives that can be used, but if transfusion is the only way to save you or your loved one, you are not going against God.