Jehovah’s Witnesses have adjusted their policy on blood transfusions, allowing members to make personal conscience-based decisions on whether to accept or donate the four main components of blood.
The organisation’s Governing Body announced the change in a statement issued by its World Headquarters in Warwick, New York, and published on its website on Friday.
Under the revised policy, members can individually decide whether to accept red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma or platelets from another person.
The statement said, “The decision to accept red cells, white cells, plasma or platelets from another person’s blood is a matter of personal conscience.”
It also said each Witness must decide whether to donate blood specifically for the purpose of providing components or fractions for use by another person.
However, the organisation clarified that its longstanding opposition to 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,” it said.
Paul Gillies, international spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses at the organisation’s World Headquarters, said the group continued to regard 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 individual conscience between each Witness and God.
According to the organisation, the latest adjustment follows previous updates concerning blood fractions and the use of a person’s own blood during medical procedures.
It said the Bible does not specifically address such medical decisions, making them matters of individual conscience, and that the same reasoning had now been extended to the four major components of blood.
On medical treatment generally, Jehovah’s Witnesses said their members 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,” the organisation said.
Gillies further explained that individual congregations would not intervene in members’ personal decisions concerning 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.
He also expressed appreciation to medical professionals who provide treatment while respecting the religious and personal wishes of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The organisation said it has more than nine million members in congregations across 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 own blood could be removed, stored and returned to them during medical treatment, while the organisation maintained its position against receiving blood from another person.
