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I am writing this article not for those who understand how evil sects are, not for those who, due to various reasons and circumstances, have decided on their Faith not in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Word of Life or any other “Hubbard”. I appeal to those who doubt and are not entirely sure where the Truth is and who God is with, to those who have at least once read a little book called “The Watchtower” and decided that everything is written there from the Bible. To those, finally, who already go to all sorts of meetings, listen to elders and pastors, but can still think critically and who can still be pulled out of the tenacious clutches of sectarianism. Or maybe I’ll be lucky, and I’ll suddenly be heard by someone who walks the streets with the above-mentioned books and asks passers-by: “Do you want to talk about God?” And yes, alas, I have a reason to talk about one from sects - about Jehovah's Witnesses.

I don’t know if I would write about this story again if, firstly, it had not been repeated almost exactly, and secondly, I had come across a curious document that caused the death of a young girl. The man who gave me this paper has been a member of the “witnesses” for a long time, but an event happened in his life that made him look differently at the tenets of the faith proposed to him, perhaps because the instinct of life turned out to be stronger in him than the attitudes with which he lived for the last few years.

I won't tell you his name. For many reasons, but first of all because he saved and gave me the mentioned document as proof of the position of this religious organization, the members of which are all obliged to sign such papers. So, having signed the same one, this man was able to understand all its absurdity and remained alive.

But everything is in order:

At the end of 2016, an ambulance brought a certain Elena Dydko, born in 1993, to the Yenakievo surgery with bleeding due to duodenal ulcer. The analysis showed alarming degree of anemia (who understands - hemoglobin -24), and the girl was immediately prescribed an urgent blood transfusion. And it was here that the doctors were presented with the document that is now in my hands. It is called a “Durable Medical Power of Attorney”, and it contains a written refusal of medical manipulation in the form of blood transfusion and its components - plasma, red blood cells, etc.

Here is the document:

It was given to me by the already mentioned parishioner of the same sect with the words: “We all sign such a paper, and pay attention - there must be a representative on medical issues, to whom we, in essence, entrust our lives. You cannot disobey, you cannot break your vow, especially since it is signed by two witnesses. I also signed this power of attorney, but I was lucky - when I was taken to the hospital, by luck, none of my people were nearby. That's why I'm alive. Only now I will be punished if everything is revealed.” When I asked what the punishment was, my interlocutor just waved his hand and noted that he would have to leave the city.

In short, Elena categorically refused the procedure, and she was also categorically supported by her sister, who informed the doctors that they were both parishioners of Jehovah’s Witnesses and they were categorically prohibited from certain types of treatment, which included blood transfusions in the first place. Moreover, the sister immediately called a couple of strong men to the hospital, one of whom identified himself as an elder of the organization, and the second introduced himself as a pediatric traumatologist.

This same traumatologist - I will give his full name and surname - Eliseev Vladimir Ivanovich, born in 1952, doctor at the Children's City Hospital in Yenakievo - brought the artificial blood substitute "perftoran" for the patient and demanded (demanded!) to use it his. “Hemoglobin is not critical,” said Eliseev, “I didn’t pull out such people either.” While the doctors were arguing with the so-called doctor, Elena was being “treated” by the sister and the pastor, supporting her in refusing medical care.

After the substitute did not help, the skirmish almost escalated into a fight between those who were desperately trying to persuade the patient to receive a blood transfusion and her so-called “brothers in the sect.” With great difficulty, they managed to expel them from the hospital, but even outside the building, the so-called doctor and the pastor threatened the doctors with a trial along with all mortal sins in the event of a forceful decision to use a medical procedure. Alas, the doctors also failed to “agree” with Elena to save her life. The girl was not only adamant, she resisted to the last. “Until the last” is not a figure of speech; Elena Dydko died at 1.30 am.

I will repeat once again: as a result of a categorical refusal of blood transfusion, supported by the elder of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect and members of this sect, sister Elena Dydko and V.I. Eliseev, a doctor by profession, a man died. The people who persuaded her to accept death instead of treatment were not punished - Elena signed the paper in accordance with all the rules of jurisprudence. The sect in Yenakievo continues its activities, and such “Endless Medical Powers of Attorney” continue to be signed by each of its parishioners. And Eliseev Vladimir Ivanovich, born in 1952, a pediatric traumatologist, continues to provide medical advice to parishioners of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Frankly speaking, I try to be calm when describing past events, only facts and not an ounce of emotion, but you will also be overwhelmed if you find out that the case with Elena Dydko is not the only one. In the same Yenakievo and in the same 2016, doctors managed to defend a boy whose parents, also among the “witnesses,” also tried to prevent the doctors from saving their son. But then the doctors’ knowledge of the law, which did not allow minors to join sects and apply the monstrous principles of pseudo-religious organizations to children, helped. And, alas, I am not exaggerating when I say that deaths as a result of a ban on sectarians using certain medical procedures are rare - by no means, ask doctors what it is like for them to defend their right to prevent a person from dying.

Now let's talk a little:

The Jehovah's Witnesses organization was created around 1870 in the USA, the central headquarters is located in New York, from where the activities of all centers and cells of “witnesses” around the world are coordinated, uniting about 8 million adherents. The first “children of Charles Russell” came to Ukraine in the wake of the collapse of the USSR (as well as to Russia), along with other American sects, NGOs and other centers of influence on people’s brains.

I have already written about this sect, and most likely I will return more than once to the issue of sectarianism, at least until some people in the Donbass stop carrying a deadly document in their passports called “Indefinite Medical Power of Attorney.” But now I would like to once again draw your attention to the scan of the “power of attorney”, namely, to the second paragraph, where in parentheses the basis is indicated on which the Lord supposedly forbids blood transfusions: Acts of the Apostles 15:28, 29.

Let's analyze:

Refusal of blood transfusions is the most odious dogma of Jehovah's Witnesses. And it is not surprising, because every year thousands of new cases of sect members refusing the transfusion procedure are reported all over the world. Some reports talk about deaths, others – about operations carried out after doctors went to court, although the latter are very rare - most often the decision on medical intervention must be made within a very short time.

Acts 15:28

 For it pleases the Holy Spirit and us not to place any more burden on you than this necessary:

Acts 15:29

 abstain from sacrifices to idols and blood, and strangulation, and fornication, and do not do to others what you do not want to do to yourself. By observing this, you will do well. Be healthy."

However, where is this about blood transfusion?

But the fact of the matter is that there are serious, I would say cardinal, contradictions between the interpretation of the biblical texts by the “Jehovah’s Witnesses” and the actual essence and meaning of the Bible. Not only regarding blood, but on this issue, these discrepancies cost the lives of thousands of people.

The refusal of Jehovah's Witnesses to receive blood transfusions is a consequence of a completely incorrect interpretation of the biblical scriptures in Leviticus 17 and Acts 15:28, 29, which speak of abstaining from eating blood. Precisely from eating. God instructed Israel to pour the blood of animals onto the ground during sacrifices and before eating meat, because it is in the blood that the soul and life of the flesh are contained. But, once the blood is removed, the meat of the sacrificed animal can be eaten.

And in general, nothing in these texts says anything about the medical purpose of human blood, especially since its transfusion does not relate to the concept of “sacrifice.” On the contrary, the blood is replaced by the blood of another person and is not consumed. Moreover, scientists argue that a person has no relation to the stomach or to food when it enters his body through the veins, since the transfused blood simply replaces that lost during surgery, bleeding or injury. The body does not digest blood, and this is the main thing. This means that there is no connection with the biblical prohibition of eating animal blood for food.

Let me also remind you that the Bible was written for Orthodox Jews, who, by the way, are much more pedantic in following the instructions from the Law of Moses than any Jehovah's Witnesses. Nevertheless, Israel has one of the most developed medicine, and it does not occur to devout Jews to refuse blood transfusions. Moreover, I note that Jehovah's Witnesses are the ONLY sect that claims that the verses of Genesis 9:3-4; Leviticus 17:13–14; Acts 15:28–29 refers to human blood transfusions.

Why?

It is obvious that the out-of-context dogmas that the "Russell's Children" use to support their policy of refusing blood transfusions, as well as other provisions and lines of the Bible turned inside out, are necessary for the elders of this organization as one of the tools to influence the not very literate minds of the parishioners. It is unlikely that Elena Dytko herself read the canonical Bible. At best, small books that sectarians hand out on the streets, but most likely, she simply listened to the sermons of the “elder brothers.”

But ask any preacher of this organization how he (and SI in general) feels about transplantation. And they will answer you - yes, as long as you don’t need a blood transfusion. The irony also lies in how this sect changes its beliefs depending on the situation - almost until the 70s of the 20th century, the “witnesses” categorically protested against vaccination. Now the position has changed, and SIs are vaccinated in the same way as ordinary people.

The unique inconsistency is explained by the fact that the pastors themselves, who are, for example, in the Donbass, do not decide anything, but receive instructions from that same single center in New York.

And you, my dear reader, whoever you are, think for yourself why someone needed to come up with just such an interpretation of the greatest of all Books. My sectarian acquaintance, the one who remained alive and gave me the “Enduring Medical Power of Attorney”, has already thought...