To get a blood transfusion is more serious to the “witness” than to commit adultery. This medical procedure is refused even to children. Here is a quote from a website given to research on these things: http://www.krev.info/library/pocetumrti.pdf

“The cover of the May 22, 1994 Awake! magazine shows the photos of 26 children, with the caption: “Youths Who Put God First.” Inside, the magazine states: “In former times thousands of youths died for putting God first. They are still doing it, only today the drama is played out in hospitals and courtrooms, with blood transfusions the issue.”

“Actual statistics have never been published, but the following estimate based on published data suggests about 900 Jehovah's Witnesses die each year because of the blood refusal policy. Kitchens reported in the February 1993 issue of 'The American Journal of Medicine' (Kitchens CS: “Are transfusions overrated? Surgical outcome of Jehovah's Witnesses.” Am J Med 1993;94:117-119) that studies based on 1,404 operations, mostly cardiovascular surgery and hip replacement, performed on Jehovah's Witnesses without blood transfusions reveal that 1.4 percent of the patients died due to lack of blood as a primary or contributing cause of death. This means that every time a JW has "bloodless surgery" his chance of dying is 1% greater. Expressed another way, for every one hundred "bloodless" operations on Jehovah's Witnesses, one death can be attributed to blood refusal. According to the American Association of Blood Banks, approximately 4 million patients receive blood transfusions from 12.6 million units of donated blood each year. That means 4 million or 15 out of every 1000 Americans have conditions requiring blood transfusions each year. Since there are about 1 million Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States, about 15,000 Jehovah's Witnesses have conditions which normally require blood transfusions. If we estimate the rate of additional death attributable to blood loss about 1%, about 150 Jehovah's Witnesses are dying each year in the United States due to blood refusal. Furthermore, there are 6 million baptized Jehovah's Witnesses and about the same number of sympathizers and inactive members worldwide. So we can conservatively multiply this figure by a factor of six. The resulting estimate shows that approximately 900 Jehovah's Witnesses die annually throughout the world as a result of the blood prohibition.”

Consider also this piece from jwvictims.org, where the “governing body” of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the assembled audience, applauds a boy who died refusing a blood transfusion!

“It is a common misconception that Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t accept medical treatment; in truth, they accept medical treatment and use medicines, but don’t accept whole blood transfusions. While this isn’t as dangerous as some faith-healing cults and religions who reject all forms of medical treatment, whole blood can be necessary in emergency situations and for conditions like leukemia or for those undergoing chemotherapy.

“Jehovah’s Witnesses often try to downplay the seriousness of their refusal to accept blood, saying that there are many alternative forms of treatment available for patients. This can often be true, but this doesn’t mean that there are no risks involved for those who don’t accept blood transfusions and that no deaths result because of it. This is demonstrated in their own words, during a discourse given at the 2016 convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses, wherein their governing body member, Tony Morris, outright brags about a ‘young fella’ who refused a blood transfusion and who died because of it; the audience then actually claps of hearing of the boy’s death!”

What does the Word say?

Q = Questioner. JWA= Jehovah's Witness Answer. CA = Christian Answer

Genesis 9:4. “You shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”

Q. Why do Jehovah’s “Witnesses” deny blood transfusions to their people, even if it is the difference between life and death? Indeed many have died, and are called martyrs by the organization.

JWA. We refuse to follow man’s ways. Jehovah has spoken very clearly on this matter in his giving of the Noahic covenant. He told Noah not to eat blood, and therefore we will not eat it. Let men persecute us if they will. God is our judge.

Q. What did you have for breakfast?

JWA. Excuse me?

Q. For breakfast. What did you eat?

JWA. As a matter of fact I had a bowl of oatmeal. What is that to you?

Q. And how did you partake of that oatmeal? Was it intravenously? Were your veins opened up and the oatmeal shot down a tube into your veins? Or was it the standard way of eating that is described in Scripture?

JWA. You mock us.

Q. Indeed I do. And I, further, challenge you to find any passage of Scripture that defines eating in the way you are defining it for the Witness cause. The entire civilized and uncivilized world knows what it means to eat. Do you?

CA: The Biblical law against eating blood arose in part from the early pagan practice of cannibalism and the eating of living animals. First, the blood is to be drained. Then the animal is fit to eat, for it is dead. Then there is the idea that life is in the blood, and that life is sacred. Some have seen reference to the atonement of Christ in this ruling. Bottom line: do not eat blood. What connection can there be between this simple law and the medical practice today of saving lives by the injection of clean human blood into a man’s body? If a man has lost blood, and is dying from that loss, is it spiritual to let him bleed to death? Under what authority?

For the record, the most Orthodox of Jews, and the most liberal, and all those in between, have been dealing with this passage for thousands of years, and none of them have ever come up with a rule such as the “Jehovah’s” Witnesses. Surely a Jew can comprehend the laws of their “Jehovah.”