Medical procedures. As Christians, we do not donate blood, nor do we store our own blood weeks in advance of surgery. However, there are other procedures that make use of a patient’s own blood. Each Christian must decide for himself how his own blood will be handled in the course of a surgical procedure, medical test, or current therapy. During the course of such procedures, the patient’s own blood may be completely separated for a time from the patient.​—For more information, see The Watchtower, October 15, 2000, pages 30-31.

For example, there is a procedure called hemodilution, in which immediately before surgery a portion of a patient’s own blood is removed and replaced with a volume expander. Later, during or shortly after the surgery, the blood is returned to the patient.

Each doctor may perform these procedures slightly differently. So before accepting any surgical procedure, medical test, or current therapy, a Christian needs to find out exactly how his own blood will be handled.

When making decisions about medical procedures that make use of your own blood, consider the following questions:

• If some of my blood will be diverted outside my body and the flow might even be interrupted for a time, will my conscience allow me to view this blood as still part of me, thus not requiring that it be poured “out on the ground”?​—Deuteronomy 12:23, 24.

• Will my Bible-trained conscience be troubled if during a medical procedure, some of my own blood is withdrawn, modified, and directed back into (or onto) my body?