Jehovah’s Witnesses have revised their policy on blood transfusion, allowing individual members to decide on accepting or donating red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma and platelets based on personal conscience.
The decision was announced by the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses in a statement issued from the organisation’s World Headquarters in Warwick, New York, and published on its website on Friday.
The organisation, however, said the change did not extend to transfusion of whole blood, which remains prohibited under its longstanding religious teaching.
“The decision to accept red cells, white cells, plasma or platelets from another person’s blood is a matter of personal conscience,” the statement said.
It also said individual members could decide whether to donate blood specifically for the purpose of producing components or fractions for transfusion into another person.
But the organisation stressed that its position on whole-blood transfusion remained unchanged.
“The long-standing refusal of whole-blood transfusions on religious grounds, a core teaching based on the command to ‘abstain from blood’ (Acts 15:20), is unchanged,” it said.
Paul Gillies, an international spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses at the organisation’s World Headquarters, said the decision reflected the group’s view that choices involving blood components should be left to individual conscience.
“Blood remains sacred to Jehovah’s Witnesses, who continue to regard life and blood as precious gifts from God,” Gillies said.
“We recognise that medical decisions involving blood components are a matter of conscience between each Witness and their God, Jehovah.”
According to the organisation, the latest adjustment builds on previous changes concerning blood fractions and the use of a person’s own blood during medical procedures.
It said the Bible does not provide specific instructions on decisions involving the four main blood components, making such choices matters for individual conscience.
“That same reasoning has now been extended to the four main components of blood,” the statement said.
The organisation also said Jehovah’s Witnesses remain free to seek conventional medical treatment and do not practise faith healing.
“Jehovah’s Witnesses love life and want the best available medical care. They do not practise faith healing, and they seek out doctors who can provide effective treatment in accord with their wishes, values and beliefs,” it said.
Gillies said local congregations would not seek to influence members’ decisions where the matter had been left to individual conscience.
“Congregations do not involve themselves in personal decisions that rest with the individual conscience. We will continue to respect and support the personal decisions of our fellow believers,” he said.
He also expressed appreciation to medical professionals who provide treatment consistent with patients’ religious preferences.
The organisation said Jehovah’s Witnesses have more than nine million members worldwide, spread across congregations in more than 200 countries and territories.
The latest announcement follows an earlier clarification concerning the use of a member’s own blood during surgery and other medical procedures.
In March, reports said the group had allowed individual Witnesses to decide whether their own blood could be removed, stored and subsequently returned during medical treatment.
At the time, the organisation maintained its position against receiving blood from another person.
The latest adjustment extends that individual-conscience approach to the four principal components of blood while retaining the prohibition on whole-blood transfusions.
- Mother, four children die in Rivers fire - September 19, 2026
- Gunmen abduct Kano village head - September 19, 2026
- Jehovah’s Witnesses revise stance on blood components - September 19, 2026
