The Watchtower reports on three ways for a Witness patient to receive his own blood to "sustain his life" by simply moving the "right / wrong" choice from The Watchtower guidelines to the conscience of the Witness patient.

(1) The Witness patient can have his blood removed from his body, pumped by a pump, oxygenated, filtered, "briefly" stored in a non-circulating state (WT 3-1-89 p.30), and returned to him "through injections into the veins" by a heart / lung device, as long as the Witness patient "conscientiously reasoned that the blood is flowing continuously and that the external circuit might be viewed as an extension of the circulatory system." (WT 6-15-78 p.30) In 1989 The Watchtower effectively removed the word "continuously" from this condition. (WT 3-1-89 p.30)

(2) The Watchtower clearly rules as "a personal, conscientious decision" matter the use of reinfusion of the intraoperative collection, "brief" storage, and later reinfusion of a patient's own blood (Acute normovolemic hemodilution, or ANH), WT 3-1-89 p.31, "through injections into the veins," with the test being that the Witness patient "believes" that the tubing attached to his arm represents a part of his circulatory system.

(3) The use of "autologous blood salvage" (ABS) techniques involve suctioning the blood lost from the circulatory system in the intraoperative and postoperative contexts "and subsequently reinfusing the recovered red cells into the patient" (Peter E. Keipert, Ph.D., Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp.) "through injections into the veins," and such is an individual's decision (WT 3-1-89 p.31). Witness patients may "utilize alternatives to blood transfusions, including the reinfusion of the patient's own blood... a technique that some Witnesses may find unobjectionable under certain circumstances." (WT 8-1-95 p.30)

"As we can see, there is a growing variety of equipment or techniques involving autologous blood. We cannot and should not try to comment on each variation. When faced with a question in this area, each Christian is responsible to obtain details from medical personnel and then make a personal decision." (The Watchtower, March. 1, 1989, p.31)

In addition to this, the Witnesses may take stored human and animal blood "ingesting it by the mouth as well as through injections into the veins" to "sustain life" (WT 6-15-78 p.24) as "a personal, conscientious decision" in five ways:

(1) The Witness patient may take other people's stored blood in the form of serum made from the stored blood of other people, "through injections into the veins." (WT 6-15-78 p.30)

(2) The Witness patient may take other people's stored blood in the form of albumin made from the stored blood of other people, "through injections into the veins."*

(3) The Witness patient may take other people's stored blood in the form of immune globulins made from the stored blood of other people, "through injections into the veins."*

(4) The Witness patient may take other people's stored blood in the form of hemophiliac preparations made from the stored blood of other people, "through injections into the veins."*

(5) The Witnesses may eat animal blood, including un-koshered meat and food products made without the careful consideration for blood avoidance that is required by The Watchtower publishers for medical treatment, as a "conscience" decision, "to sustain life" and "ingesting it by the mouth" with virtually no dietary guidelines from the Society. (WT 6-15-78 p.31)

. . .* "Witnesses' religious understanding does not absolutely prohibit the use of components such as albumin, immune globulins, and hemophiliac preparations; each Witness must decide individually if he can accept these." (How Can Blood Save Your Life? p. 27)

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