Bennett-Guerrero, E., Zhao, Y., O’Brien, S., Ferguson, T. B., Peterson, E., Gammie, J., Song. H. (2010). Variation in use of blood transfusion in coronary artery bypass graft surgery. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 304(14), 1568-1575. doi:10.1001/jama.2010.1406.

The current blood card, or “Medical Directive” is no longer able to make the same uncompromising statement. Why? Because the Society has gradually modified its once firm position, and now allows every part of the blood to be transfused or injected if sufficiently fractionated. A doctrine that made little sense to begin with, now makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Are you still carrying this document in your wallet? If so, why? It may well become a warrant for your untimely death. Children of Jehovah’s Witnesses, though not even baptized, are called upon to carry a similar card:The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses is doing far more than making “recommendations” about blood. They have established very complex, detailed policy on it’s use. The policy is so complex that it requires special committees of elders to explain it to both Jehovah’s Witnesses and doctors. Even then most remain confused about what is permitted, what is forbidden, and what the reasoning behind the rules is. This includes the HLC themselves, members of which were involved in the establishment of AJWRB. In addition, simply stating that individuals “have the opportunity to choose” does not make it so. The idea that JW’s “are not pressured or forced to chose against their will” is very disingenuous. It would be like saying you have a choice when a robber points a gun at you and demands your wallet. What choice do you have in the situation? Perhaps you had a free choice at the time you joined the Watchtower and got baptized. However, what if you later came to learn about all of the problems with the Watchtower’s policy and no longer support it? Do you have a free choice not to follow the policy or to even question the policy? The answer is certainly not. It is even worse for those who were raised as JW’s. With the Watchtower pushing baptism on children and teenagers long before they have fully developed brains and critical thinking ability they end up being forced to support a policy they never had a chance to understand. If they do happen to figure out the truth and don’t want to follow or support the policy what are their choices? They depend on their JW family for support. They don’t want to lose the only friends they have, and their family and the congregation expect them to comply. If they don’t comply an announcement will be made that they are no longer Jehovah’s Witnesses and they will be shunned. Any who refuse to shun them will also be shunned. This is an incredible amount of pressure. If they have a condition that requires blood the level of duress all but eliminates any illusion of choice. https://www.ajwrb.org/the-h-l-c-perspective Reply The “No Blood Card” that Jehovah’s Witnesses carry has experienced significant changes over the years, as you will see in this article. It was simply referred to as “the blood card” for many decades, then came to be called “the Advanced Medical Directive”. Another major change occurred in 2004, when it was combined with a Durable Power of Attorney specific to each state and is at times referred to as the “DPA”. Furthermore, a plethora of studies show that blood transfusions are not only given unnecessarily, but that they actually increase morbidity and mortality in patients. In other words, blood transfusions aren’t good for you. Physicians in the US are most likely to administer blood, while European doctors have already evolved past using this old, outdated, 20th century method of treating patients and giving blood. The overall movement is towards less blood, not more, because blood is dangerous. It is dirty. It harms your immune system. I’m not a JW, but I would not want a blood transfusion either. I wash my hands after just shaking a strangers hand, why would I want to infuse a strangers blood into my body. Gross!!

Finally! Someone who answered my original question! Thank you! I made a copy of your reply and plan to use it along with statements from some of our floor nurses who really do just happen to appreciate the band system. They feel it makes them more secure. Yeah, it's true. For these reasons, we believe that it is incumbent upon emergency room physicians to verbally verify the level of commitment to the current Watchtower policy. Especially in view of the fact that it is well-known a significant percentage of Jehovah’s Witness secretly oppose the policy and feel coerced into carrying the blood card or risk exposure as apostates with subsequent shunning.1,2,3,4 The red crosses immense profit from volunteered blood is also something worth reviewing to provide a balanced perspective do people can make an informed decision and then be respected to make the own bodily autonomous decisions without being judged.

Note the level of alarm sounded by the Watchtower Society because one card was approximately five years old and more than half were unsigned, not witnessed or out of date. The reports certainly call into question the degree of support among Jehovah’s Witnesses for the blood policy. Religion and Ethics Newsweekly for Public Broadcasting Service (Betty Rollin). (2013, July 12). Bloodless Surgery [video]. Available from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2013/07/12/july-12-2013-bloodless-surgeries/19167/