Blood

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25891287-12377,00.html

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25891287-12377,00.html

I am on the fence due to his age.

 Some in their 70s are full of life and consider themselves 'young' because they aren't in their nineties, while others desire to die

Dialysis while worthwhile in my 34 year old opinion might not be to someone older who feels the process to be robbing them of quality.

However I don't many JWs who would refuse dialysis ...... and we just re-covered the 11/06 KM (including the Elders passing the worksheet to be filled out anew, signed and dated).

I hope one day regenerative medicine will make these therapies limited.

Renal failure and on a respirator? Doesn't sound like he has much quality left in life. The document may have been signed when he was well, but it serves him now in this instance.

I took care of a lady in her 70's who had been on dialysis for years. She was still really sick and finally decided to stop the dialysis. 

It was strange watching her die, but it was her choice and I am all for the right to make end of life choices.

I am all in favour of supporting an old man's end-of-life wishes...but I do not understand why this raised a problem under the "blood issue". The WT has said

WT 89 3/1 p30

"In a somewhat different process, autologous blood can be diverted from a patient to a hemodialysis device (artificial kidney) or a heart-lung pump. The blood flows out through a tube to the artificial organ that pumps and filters (or oxygenates) it, and then it returns to the patient’s circulatory system. Some Christians have permitted this if the equipment is not primed with stored blood. They have viewed the external tubing as elongating their circulatory system so that blood might pass through an artificial organ. They have felt that the blood in this closed circuit was still part of them and did not need to be ‘poured out.’

What, though, if the flow of such autologous blood stopped briefly, such as if a heart-lung machine is shut down while the surgeon checks the integrity of coronary-bypass grafts?

Actually, the Biblical emphasis is not on the issue of continuous flow. Even aside from surgery, a person’s heart might stop briefly and then resume. His circulatory system would not have to be emptied and his blood disposed of just because blood flow had stopped during the cardiac arrest. Hence, a Christian having to decide whether to permit his blood to be diverted through some external device ought to focus, not primarily on whether a brief interruption in flow might occur, but on whether he conscientiously felt that the diverted blood would still be part of his circulatory system.—Galatians 6:5."

Or have I got the wrong treatment ?