Is Receiving Blood Transfusions Equivalent to Eating Blood?

Since blood transfusions have saved so many lives, why are the Jehovah's Witnesses so opposed to them? This bogus belief comes from scriptures forbidding the eating of blood.

One example cited for their prohibition is Leviticus 17:14 (KJV) which says, "For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, 'Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.'"

The followers of this cult miss the fact that it was the consumption of animal blood which was forbidden and that it didn't directly enter the bloodstream. Blood also carries diseases but the human variety is screened for any contagion.

According to several sources which I checked, some Witnesses actually went to prison because their children died from a lack of blood. The Watchtower literature even promotes breaking the law to avoid transfusions.

And just as human blood can save our temporal lives, the blood Christ shed on the cross atoned for the sins of whosoever believes in him and asks for his forgiveness. All the blood sacrifices of the Old Testament were done to show that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.

I'll be writing more about how aberrant sects prevent their members from being saved in a book called You Think You're Going to Heaven?  As Christ accused the Pharisees in Matthew 23:13 (BBE), "But a curse is on you, Scribes and Pharisees, false ones! because you are shutting the kingdom of heaven against men: for you do not go in yourselves, and those who are going in, you keep back." May the Lord work through my writing to guide people to heaven's entrance.