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EndnotesHow to Remain in God’s Love
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Medical procedures. As Christians, we do not donate blood, nor do we store our own blood weeks in advance of surgery. However, there are other procedures that make use of a patient’s own blood. Each Christian must decide for himself how his own blood will be handled in the course of a surgical procedure, medical test, or current therapy. During the course of such procedures, the patient’s own blood may be completely separated for a time from the patient.—For more information, see The Watchtower, October 15, 2000, pages 30-31.
For example, there is a procedure called hemodilution, in which immediately before surgery a portion of a patient’s own blood is removed and replaced with a volume expander. Later, during or shortly after the surgery, the blood is returned to the patient.
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EndnotesHow to Remain in God’s Love
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Each doctor may perform these procedures slightly differently. So before accepting any surgical procedure, medical test, or current therapy, a Christian needs to find out exactly how his own blood will be handled.
When making decisions about medical procedures that make use of your own blood, consider the following questions:
If some of my blood will be diverted outside my body and the flow might even be interrupted for a time, will my conscience allow me to view this blood as still part of me, thus not requiring that it be poured “out on the ground”?—Deuteronomy 12:23, 24.
Will my Bible-trained conscience be troubled if during a medical procedure, some of my own blood is withdrawn, modified, and directed back into (or onto) my body?
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