Jehovah’s Witnesses Update Blood Guidance, Leave Decisions to Members’ Conscience

Kehinde Adeleye

Jehovah’s Witnesses have announced a change to their guidance on blood, allowing individual members to decide whether to accept or donate the four main components of blood based on personal conscience.

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 updated guidance, members can personally decide whether to accept red cells, white cells, plasma or platelets from another person’s blood.

“The decision to accept red cells, white cells, plasma or platelets from another person’s blood is a matter of personal conscience,” the organisation said.

It also said individual Witnesses could decide whether to donate blood specifically for the purpose of providing components or fractions for use by another person.

However, the organisation said its longstanding position against whole blood transfusions remained 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, an international spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses at the organisation’s World Headquarters, said blood remained sacred to members.

“Blood remains sacred to Jehovah’s Witnesses, who continue to regard life and blood as precious gifts from God,” Gillies said.

“We recognise that medical decisions involving blood components are a matter of conscience between each Witness and their God, Jehovah.”

The organisation said the latest adjustment followed earlier updates concerning blood fractions and the use of a person’s own blood during medical procedures.

It said the Bible did not specifically address decisions concerning the four main blood components, making them matters of individual conscience.

“Since the Bible does not comment on such decisions, they are a matter of individual conscience. That same reasoning has now been extended to the four main components of blood,” it said.

The organisation also said Jehovah’s Witnesses seek medical treatment and do not practise faith healing.

“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 statement said.

Gillies said local congregations would not interfere in members’ individual medical decisions.

“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 across more than 200 countries and territories.

The latest clarification follows an earlier update in March concerning the use of a member’s own blood during surgery and other medical procedures.

That guidance 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.