Blood transfusion: Jehovah’s Witnesses update medical guidelines

The governing body of Jehovah’s Witnesses has revised its blood transfusion policy to allow members to receive or donate four blood components, based on their conscience, a departure from the religious organisation’s longstanding position.

“The decision to accept red cells, white cells, plasma or platelets from another person’s blood is a matter of personal conscience,” the organisation’s world headquarters in New York said in a statement on Friday, according to Peoples Gazette.

The church, however, said its refusal of whole-blood transfusions on religious grounds, based on Acts 15:20, remains unchanged. It added that blood remains sacred to its members.

The development follows an earlier decision allowing members to store their own blood for personal transfusion.