Jehovah’s Witnesses unveil latest update to blood transfusion policy

The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses has unveiled the latest update to its blood transfusion policy, allowing members to decide whether to accept or donate the four main components of blood based on their personal conscience.

The organisation made this known in a statement issued by its World Headquarters in Warwick, New York, and made available on its website on Friday.

According to the statement, the decision to accept red cells, white cells, plasma or platelets from another person’s blood is a matter of personal conscience. It added that each Witness must decide whether or not to donate blood for the clearly expressed purpose of providing components or fractions for use by another person.

However, the organisation said its position on whole-blood transfusion had not changed. “The long-standing refusal of whole-blood transfusions on religious grounds, a core teaching based on the command to ‘abstain from blood’ (Acts 15:20), is unchanged,” the statement read.

International spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses at the organisation’s World Headquarters, Paul Gillies, said blood remained sacred to members, who continued to regard life and blood as precious gifts from God. He added that medical decisions involving blood components were a matter of conscience between each Witness and their God, Jehovah.

The organisation noted that the latest adjustment followed earlier updates regarding blood fractions and the use of one’s own blood during medical procedures. It added that since the Bible does not comment on such decisions, they are a matter of individual conscience, and the same reasoning had now been extended to the four main components of blood.

On medical care, the statement affirmed that Jehovah’s Witnesses love life and want the best available medical care, adding that they do not practise faith healing and seek doctors who can provide effective treatment in accordance with their wishes, values and beliefs. Gillies said local congregations would not interfere in members’ personal decisions.

Earlier in March, the group had clarified its position on the use of a member’s own blood during surgery and other medical procedures, allowing individual Witnesses to decide whether their blood could be removed, stored and returned to them during medical treatment while maintaining its position against receiving blood from another person.