Jehovah’s Witnesses have changed their position on four major components of blood, allowing individual members to decide for themselves whether to accept or donate them based on personal conscience.
The organisation announced the change on Friday, September 18, 2026, in a statement issued by its World Headquarters in Warwick, New York.
Under the new position, members can personally decide whether to accept red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma or platelets from another person’s blood.
“The decision to accept red cells, white cells, plasma or platelets from another person’s blood is a matter of personal conscience,” the organisation said.
Members can also decide whether to donate blood specifically for the purpose of producing components or fractions for another person’s medical treatment.
However, the change does not extend to whole-blood transfusions.
“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,” the statement said.
Paul Gillies, an international spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses, said the organisation still considers blood sacred and views medical decisions involving its components as matters for individual conscience.
“Blood remains sacred to Jehovah’s Witnesses, who continue to regard life and blood as precious gifts from God,” Gillies said.
He added that the decision followed previous changes concerning blood fractions and the use of a person’s own blood during medical procedures.
The organisation also said its congregations would not interfere in individual decisions concerning blood components.
“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,” Gillies said.
The latest announcement follows another adjustment made by the organisation earlier in 2026, when members were given the personal choice of whether to have their own blood removed, stored and later returned to them during medical procedures.
Jehovah’s Witnesses said they do not practise faith healing and that members seek professional medical care that is consistent with their religious beliefs and personal choices.
The organisation says it has more than nine million members across more than 200 countries and territories.