JEHOVAH'S Witnesses are to be allowed to accept blood transfusions after an extraordinary U-turn by leaders of the controversial religion. Elders have decreed that Jehovah's Witnesses who accept blood transfusions under life-or-death conditions will no longer face excommunication from their membership. The move represents the biggest climbdown in the movement since the predicted Armageddon failed to materialise as forecast in 1975. Under the change to Watch Tower practice, blood transfusions have officially been relegated to a "on-disfellowshipping event".
The decision, arrived at by a secret meeting of the 12-member world governing body at the movement's headquarters in New York, was dismissed as a "slight adjustment" by the religion's leaders. It follows decades of adverse publicity about adults and children who have died or come close to death because of their faith. Only last week, a Jehovah's Witness, Brent Bond, from Nottingham, who lost five pints of blood in a machete attack, renounced his faith just seconds before he lost consciousness so that he could have a lifesaving blood transfusion. Realising that his mother would never grant consent for a transfusion, he told paramedics: "I'm no longer a Jehovah's Witness. I give my consent to a transfusion."
In January a young mother, Beverly Matthews, 33, of Stockport, died after refusing an emergency blood transfusion. In March last year the Association of Anaesthetists issued new guidelines stating that Jehovah's Witnesses could be allowed to die if they refused transfusions. Letters have already been sent to elders throughout Britain, where there are about 130,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, explaining that they should no longer expel members who accept blood, as well as to the elders of the six million adherents worldwide. Elders will then advise their local hospital liaison committees, who liaise between Jehovah's Witnesses and medical staff. Jehovah's Witnesses view life as a gift from God, represented by blood. They interpret certain Bible passages to mean that they cannot accept any form of blood transfusion. The teaching on blood itself has not changed, but until now any Jehovah's Witness who consciously accepted blood or who allowed their child or baby to have a blood transfusion, even if they knew they would die without it, has faced "disfellowship".
Paul Gillies, spokesman for the Jehovah's Witnesses, who have their British headquarters in Mill Hill, North London, said that not taking blood was still a "core value" of the religion. "It is quite possible that someone who was under pressure on an operating table would take a blood transfusion because they did not want to die. The next day they might say they regretted this decision. We would then give them spiritual comfort and help. No action would be taken against them. We would just view it as a moment of weakness." He said that even if the Jehovah's Witness did not repent, they would not be expelled but would merely be viewed as having "dissociated" themselves from the religion. Geoffrey Unwin, a former Jehovah's Witness who now writes about the religion under the name James King, said: "Jehovah's Witnesses who are excommunicated are then branded as apostates or anti-Christ and friends and relatives within the movement are instructed to avoid their company, not even speaking to them should a chance meeting occur in the street." He predicted widespread anger about the change and said he knew of two former members who were considering legal action. "I know someone who was kicked out just for questioning this teaching. They were shunned by all their friends and neighbours and had to move house." [Source: http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/06/14/timfgnusa01004.html via: ArialThird_Watch@egroups.com
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