|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Months after Nigerians watched Mensha Omotola Esther, popularly called Aunty Esther, refuse a blood transfusion during her battle with breast cancer, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have changed their position on some of the very blood components at the centre of her treatment.
On September 18, the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses announced that members may now decide for themselves whether to accept red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma, or platelets from another person’s blood in medical and surgical care. The organisation described the move as an adjustment to its position on blood transfusion, saying the decision now belongs to each member’s conscience.
Aunty Esther, the X famous personal shopper known on X as @MensahOmolola, whose market-selling advertisements had become a familiar sight under strangers’ posts, was fighting breast cancer. More than ₦30m had been raised for her treatment. Then the treatment hit a wall that had nothing to do with money. Doctors wanted to begin chemotherapy, but Esther needed her blood levels improved first. A transfusion was offered. She refused it.
The decision immediately became a public argument about religion, medicine and what people are willing to sacrifice to remain faithful to a belief. It became even more disturbing when X user Wizarab10, who had coordinated the fundraising around her treatment, said Esther’s church had warned that she could be disfellowshipped if she accepted the transfusion. On December 5, he said he was stepping away after trying to convince her to reconsider. He described a woman surrounded by people trying to help her medically, while her religious conviction stood between her and the treatment they believed she needed. She died on December 27, 2025. Her death was confirmed by Aunty Muse, who had been closely involved in her care.
Now, nine months later, Jehovah’s Witnesses have changed their position on blood, which is a remarkable change for a religion whose prohibition on blood transfusion has shaped the medical decisions of its members for decades. The organisation has not abandoned its prohibition on whole-blood transfusions; it has changed how it treats the four major components that previously fell under the prohibition.
“Blood remains sacred to Jehovah’s Witnesses, who continue to regard life and blood as precious gifts from God,” Paul Gillies, international spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses at their World Headquarters, said. “We recognise that medical decisions involving blood components are a matter of conscience between each Witness and their God, Jehovah.”
The organisation’s explanation for the change is itself revealing, because Jehovah’s Witnesses say the Bible does not specifically comment on these four blood components and that this is why the decision can now be left to individual conscience. But what happened to the conscience of members who were previously taught to reject them?
That is why many Nigerians have reacted on X to express their disdain for the entire situation. An X user, Emekaigwe96, posted
“Yeah, Aunty Esther died for nothing, but e no go better for people wey introduced the policy, and it’s also a very big lesson to others wey dey believe rubbish.”
Another user, Nimisioluwa, made a tweet after the Jehovah’s Witness announcement, saying she prayed that Aunty Esther’s spirit doesn’t forgive them, because she was more concerned about making it to the kingdom of God.
“I pray Aunty Esther’s spirit doesn’t forgive you all. Even in her darkest, lowest moment, she stood firm in her beliefs and everything this church had preached to her. She was more concerned about making it to the Kingdom of God than living a worldly life. She refused the blood transfusion, even when she knew it could have been the only thing that might have helped improve her condition.”
Aunty Esther was alive when the rule was one thing, but died while obeying it, and is now being remembered at the exact moment the rule has changed. And for many people witnessing the announcement of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ change in doctrine, “she died for nothing” is the only sentence that seems to capture what it really feels like.
