Jehovah’s Witnesses have adjusted their policy on blood transfusions, allowing members to decide based on personal conscience whether to accept or donate the four main components of blood.
The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses announced the change in a statement issued by its World Headquarters in Warwick, New York, and published on its website on Friday.
Under the new policy, members can personally decide whether to accept red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma or platelets from another person’s blood.
The organisation also said each Witness can decide whether to donate blood specifically for the purpose of providing blood components or fractions for another person.
However, it stressed that its longstanding position against whole-blood transfusions remains unchanged.
“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 said.
Paul Gillies, international spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses at the organisation’s World Headquarters, said the group still regards blood as sacred.
“Blood remains sacred to Jehovah’s Witnesses, who continue to regard life and blood as precious gifts from God,” Gillies said.
He added that medical decisions involving blood components were matters of conscience between individual Witnesses and their God, Jehovah.
The organisation said the adjustment followed earlier changes concerning blood fractions and the use of a person’s own blood during medical procedures.
It said the Bible does not specifically address decisions concerning the four main blood components, making them matters of individual conscience.
On medical treatment, the organisation said Jehovah’s Witnesses seek professional healthcare while maintaining their religious convictions.
“Jehovah’s Witnesses love life and want the best available medical care. They do not practise faith healing, and they seek out doctors who can provide effective treatment in accord with their wishes, values and beliefs,” it said.
Gillies said individual congregations would not interfere with members’ personal decisions regarding blood components.
“Congregations do not involve themselves in personal decisions that rest with the individual conscience. We will continue to respect and support the personal decisions of our fellow believers,” he said.
The organisation said Jehovah’s Witnesses number more than nine million worldwide, with congregations in more than 200 countries and territories.
The latest policy adjustment follows a clarification issued by the group in March on the use of a member’s own blood during surgery and other medical procedures.
That clarification allowed individual Witnesses to decide whether their blood could be removed, stored and later returned to them during medical treatment, while the organisation maintained its position against receiving blood from another person.
