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Although Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept transfusions of whole blood, and despite not donating blood (as they believe it must not be stored), they may according to the conscience of the particular individual, accept derivatives of blood, or even whole autologous blood so long as it is part of a "current therapy", such as normovolemic hemodilution, a treatment that processes the individual's own blood in a closed loop that does not interrupt the flow of blood, delivering it immediately back into the person's body. [1] Also left to conscience are procedures where a "quantity of blood is withdrawn in order to tag it or to mix it with medicine, whereupon it is put back into the patient."
The Witnesses' Medical Care and Blood policy changed fundamentally in the year 2000 and now accepts derivatives such as Hemopure, which consists of chemically stabilized bovine hemoglobin (derived from cows' blood) and PolyHeme (chemically modified hemoglobin derived from human blood). The Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, PA, provides a detailed list of these specific distinctions. Witnesses interpret the prohibited use of blood to be limited to whole allogeneic blood (or any of its four main components), or stored autologous blood. Transfusion of whole autologous blood that is part of a "current therapy" and/or sufficiently fractionated constituents from donated and stored allogeneic blood are considered a "gray area" not specifically condemned and therefore permissable
the law currently states that children under 16 cannot be refused blood by the parents but over 16s have free choice
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