Glad you’re still with us. I’ve always thought that particular JW belief is especially bloody minded (ahem) . Seems to me to be based on a willful misinterpretation of a rather obscure passage in the new testament. Specifically, Acts 15:20 “Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.”
That passage clearly refers to Jewish dietary law, which requires all animals to be drained of blood before being eaten.
Of course, it’s a pretty simple way to make themselves stand out and to see themselves as ‘special’ and persecuted. I suspect a person dying for refusing a transfusion when their life could be saved by a transfusion might be seen as a martyr.
What I find especially troubling is the emphasis on ritual rather than moral law. Common enough in Christendom I guess.
My catholic mother refused to give birth in a catholic hospital. The reason was/is that a catholic hospital puts the life of the baby first. If it comes to a choice, they will save the baby and let the mother die.
Mum’s reasoning (as she told me) was; " I have a husband and other children who need me. I can have another baby."