Jehovah’s Witnesses have updated their blood transfusion policy to allow members to remove, store and “retransfuse” their own blood during medical procedures.While the change will allow members to receive blood transfusions during planned surgeries, for example, they will still be prohibited from receiving blood from others.
Gerrit Losch, a member of the organization’s leadership, announced the move, saying “each Christian must decide for himself how his blood should be used for medical and surgical care.” Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Christian-based religious movement perhaps best known for their door-to-door evangelism. The organization claims to have 144,000 active members in the UK and 9 million active members worldwide.
The organization has historically prohibited members from receiving blood transfusions because, according to the organization’s website, both the Old and New Testaments “command us to abstain from blood.”
A spokesman for the organization said: “Our core beliefs about the sanctity of blood remain unchanged.” Some former members criticized the move as “not enough”.
“If a Jehovah’s Witness faces a medical emergency with severe blood loss, or a child requires multiple transfusions to treat certain types of cancer, this policy change does not give them complete freedom of conscience to receive potentially life-saving interventions involving blood donations,” Mitch Mellon told the Los Angeles Times.
Last December, a Edinburgh court rules If a teenage Jehovah’s Witness needs a blood transfusion after surgery, doctors can give her a blood transfusion.
The 14-year-old girl told paramedics she did not consent to the transfusion because of her religious beliefs, but lawyers for the Scottish Health Board sought an order allowing the procedure to continue if the girl’s life was in danger.
The order was granted, with Mrs Tait saying she believed it was in the best interests of the children to “give due weight to her views”.
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