Eastern Maine Medical Center’s commitment to developing its blood conservation and management program is good news for Maine’s small but growing population of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who reject the use of blood products in managing medical needs.

About 5 percent of the patients treated at EMMC are Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose religion requires abstinence from the use of blood or blood products, including white blood cells, red blood cells, plasma and platelets. The prohibition is based on the group’s interpretation of specific passages in the Old and New Testaments, according to Andy Carr of Portland, an elder in the state congregation and chairman of the group’s hospital liaison committee.

“Jehovah’s Witnesses will accept 99.9 percent of what medicine offers,” Carr said – but not blood, even in an emergency. The rule makes it critically important for members to have access to programs such as EMMC’s, Carr said, adding that some Witnesses travel to hospitals outside Maine to get the care they need.

There are about 6,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Maine, Carr estimated, and the number is growing with the group’s active missionary program.

Dr. Irwin Gross, medical director of transfusion services at EMMC, said meeting the needs of Jehovah’s Witnesses was “not a primary focus” of developing the new program. But he acknowledged that an enhanced approach to blood conservation and management may eliminate the need to refer some patients out of state, while improving safety and health for the general population.