Detroit Free Press, July 1968

Heart Transplants Held Cannibalism

By Hiley H. Ward

Transplants of hearts and other organs are a form of "cannibalism," the presiding officer of the nation's 350,000 Jehovah's Witnesses said in Detroit Sunday.

In an interview, Milton G. Henschel, 48, said there has been some developments in the teaching of the Witnesses, but bans against transfusions – and transplants, which is done with wide use of transfusion – still exist.

"Transplanting organs is really cannibalism," said the tall, 6-foot-4 pleasant man who is almost a spitting image of a thinner Bob Hope."

"In transplants, you are taking something from another body to sustain your life."

From the Scriptures he referred to Gen. 9:3, 4 "Every moving animal that is alive may serve as food for you. As in the case of green vegetation, I do give it all to you. Only flesh with its soul – its blood – you must not eat."

AND ACTS 15:29 – "Abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood."

We are confident of the resurrection, and don't fear death," Mr. Henschel said. "If a person gains another five years, because of a transplant, what has he gained, if he loses the future?"

The future, Mr. Henschel said, includes the battle of Armageddon, in which God will defeat the devil, in a short span, possibly several months. There is no date for Armageddon (Rev. 16:16), but, said Mr. Henschel, "1975 is a year to watch."

Witnesses believe the last generation is dated from the first global war, 1914, and time is getting near to the end of that generation. World war, confusion, famine, are all signs of the final times (Matt. 24), Mr. Henschel said.

The year 1975 is the year to watch because also by adding up the generations since creation (based on length of lives of people in the Bible), they believe 6,000 years will end in 1975.

Then comes a paradise (after Armageddon) which will be ruled over by an invisible Christ. The dead – except for 144,000 spiritually elite already in the hands of a spiritual realm of God – will be resurrected.

THE HARD-CORE EVIL, who have already had a chance in their lives on earth, will not be resurrected but are blotted out from God's memory forever. There is no hell of torment. Others who now get a solid chance of accepting Christ's new jurisdiction, and do so, will be saved and live an eternity on earth which is being formed during the 1,000 years of Christ's special rule over earth.

Asked if the Witnesses, who come out a tradition of groups expecting the end of the world, and incorporated as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, ever "reform" or change, Mr. Henschel said they are always growing in new Bible understanding.

"We don't have ecumenical councils," he said, "but in our Bible study, we have come to see, for instance, that the resurrection is going to involve more people that we thought. "We had thought, for instance, those who lived in Christ's day and were rebuked by him would be lost, but now we see this refers only to the leaders."

The resurrection in the special 1,000 year period, will now include billions, he said, giving all a fair chance, and from these there will still be the sorting out finally during the 1,000 years of Christ's rule in the earthly paradise.

In the "renewed" or growing thinking of the Witnesses, Mr Henschel said, even Sodom and Gomorrah have won a reprieve, as a people, if not among their leaders. The reason, he said, is new attention on Jesus' references to Sodom and Gomorrah that some will be worse off than those destroyed in those cities (Matt. 10:15; 11:24).