Jehovah's Witnesses and Blood Transfusions - Bloodless Surgery

Bloodless Surgery

A variety of bloodless surgery techniques have been developed for use on patients who refuse blood transfusions for reasons that include concern about AIDS, hepatitis, and other blood-borne infections, or immune system reactions. Thousands of physicians throughout the world have expressed a willingness to respect patients' preferences and provide bloodless treatment and about 200 hospitals offer bloodless medicine and surgery programs for adult and pediatric patients who wish to avoid or limit blood transfusions, or to avoid treatment contrary to Jehovah's Witnesses' blood doctrine. Bloodless surgery has been successfully performed in such invasive operations as open-heart surgery and total hip replacements. However bloodless medical and surgical techniques have limitations, and surgeons say the use of various allogeneic blood products and/or pre-operative autologous blood transfusion is the standard of care for some patient presentations.

In cases of certain medical emergencies when bloodless medicine is not available, blood transfusions may seem to be the only available way to save a life. Watch Tower publications suggest that in such instances, Jehovah's Witnesses request that doctors provide the best alternative care possible under the circumstances, with respect for their personal conviction. The Watch Tower Society has acknowledged that some members have died after refusing blood.

In some countries, including Canada and the UK, a parent or guardian's decision can be legally overruled by medical staff. In this case, medical staff may act without consent, by obtaining a court order in a non-emergency situation, or without such an order in an emergency. In Japan, a doctor must respect the wish of an adult but can override the wishes of a child and its parents if the child is under 15. If a child is aged 15 to 17, a doctor will not perform a transfusion if the parents and the child refuse the transfusion. If a child aged from 15 to 17 objects to a transfusion but the parents demand the transfusion, then a doctor can override the child's wish. In the United States, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that in cases of "an imminent threat to a child's life", physicians in some cases may "intervene over parental objections".