Bereaved Families from Jehovah's Witness Blood Refusal - Policy Change
Jehovah's Witness Blood Policy 2026: 4 Major Changes
Today, September 18, 2026, Jehovah’s Witnesses announced one of the most significant changes to their blood policy in decades.
Red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma, and platelets obtained from another person are no longer categorically prohibited. Each Witness may now decide individually whether to accept them. Witnesses may also decide whether to donate blood for the purpose of providing components or fractions. Whole blood from another person remains prohibited.
This follows the change announced earlier this year allowing Witnesses to make their own decision about the use of their own stored blood, including preoperative autologous donation.
For AJWRB, there are several immediate issues that we believe are especially important.
First, this is a significant expansion of individual conscience in medical decision-making, and we welcome that.
Second, religious permission is not the same as patient consent. Clinicians can no longer assume that “Jehovah’s Witness” means refusal of red cells, plasma, platelets, or white cells. Each patient’s actual preferences need to be established individually and, whenever possible, privately.
Third, many Witnesses are still carrying advance directives that were completed when these treatments were religiously prohibited. Watchtower has announced that a new medical directive is coming and has advised Witnesses that, in the meantime, they may document their current choices through legally recognized forms or directly with healthcare providers.
Fourth, there is a transitional information problem. As of today, some clinician-facing information on JW.org still describes red cells, white cells, plasma, platelets, and preoperative autologous donation as refused. That information will presumably be updated, but clinicians need to be aware of the discrepancy now.
And finally, we recognize that this announcement may be extremely painful for people who lost a spouse, parent, child, sibling, or friend after blood was refused under the former policy. A policy change today cannot tell us what a particular patient would have chosen under different circumstances, nor does it prove that transfusion would have prevented an individual death. But it can reopen very real grief, anger, and difficult questions. Those experiences should not be minimized.
AJWRB has published an initial analysis of the change here:
https://www.ajwrb.org/jehovahs-witness-blood-policy-2026-major-change
We are now beginning the much larger job of reviewing and updating our website, since a great deal of material that accurately described the former policy is no longer an accurate description of current policy.
We also want to preserve the historical record. If you or your family were directly affected by the blood policy, including the loss of a loved one or a serious medical experience involving blood refusal, AJWRB would like to hear from you. Those accounts can be preserved anonymously when necessary.
For those who have been personally affected by this policy, particularly families who have lost someone, we recognize that today may be a very complicated day.
ajwrb.org