The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses has relaxed its policy on blood, allowing members to decide according to their personal conscience whether to accept or donate four major blood components. The organisation announced the adjustment in a statement issued by its World Headquarters in Warwick, New York, and published on its website on Friday. Under the revised position, 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 members could decide whether to donate blood for the specific purpose of providing components or fractions for use by another person. However, the organisation stressed that the adjustment did not change its long-standing position against whole-blood transfusions. “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. International spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses at the organisation’s World Headquarters, Paul Gillies, said the group continued to regard blood as sacred while recognising that decisions involving blood components were personal. “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,” he added. The organisation said the policy adjustment followed earlier updates concerning blood fractions and the use of a member’s own blood during medical procedures. It explained that the Bible does not specifically comment on decisions involving the four main blood components, making such choices matters of individual conscience. The organisation also said Jehovah’s Witnesses seek medical treatment rather than practising faith healing, provided the treatment accords with their wishes, values and beliefs. Gillies said local congregations would not interfere 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. Jehovah’s Witnesses said they have more than nine million members worldwide across more than 200 countries and territories.
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