Jehovah’s Witnesses ease rules on blood transfusions

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Olivia Ireland

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EPA

Jehovah’s Witnesses can have their own blood removed for pre-planned surgeries

Jehovah’s Witnesses has updated its policy on blood transfusions to allow members to have their own blood removed, stored, and “given back” in medical procedures.

While the change will enable members to have transfusions of their own blood - in planned surgeries, for example - they continue to be prohibited from receiving the blood of others.

Gerrit Losch, part of the group’s leadership, announced the move saying “each Christian must decide for himself how his blood will be used in medical and surgical care”.

Jehovah’s Witnesses is a Christian-based religious movement, probably best known for its door-to-door evangelism. It claims 144,000 active members in the UK, and nine million worldwide.

The group has historically ruled that members cannot accept blood transfusions, as - according to the groups website - both the Old and New Testaments “command us to abstain from blood”.

“Our core belief regarding the sanctity of blood remains unchanged,” a spokesperson for the group said.

Some former members have criticised the move, saying it “doesn’t go far enough”.

Mitch Melon told the LA Times: “If one of Jehovah’s Witnesses faces a medical emergency with significant blood loss, or if a child requires multiple transfusions to treat certain types of cancers, this policy change does not grant them complete freedom of conscience to accept potentially life-saving interventions involving donated blood”.

In December last year, an Edinburgh court ruled doctors would be able to give a blood transfusion to a teenage Jehovah’s Witness if she needed one following an operation.

The 14-year-old girl told medics she did not consent to a transfusion because of her religious beliefs, but lawyers for a Scottish health board sought an order to allow the procedure to go ahead if the girl’s life was at risk.

The order was granted, as Judge Lady Tait said she was satisfied it was in the child’s best interests “giving appropriate weight to her views”.

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