The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses announced on Friday, September 18, 2026, that individual members may now decide based on their personal conscience whether to accept or donate the four primary components of blood: red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma, and platelets.
The policy update was released globally via an official statement and video broadcast (Governing Body Update #6) from the organization’s World Headquarters in Warwick, New York.
While extending personal decision-making to the four primary components, the leadership affirmed that the longstanding religious prohibition against receiving or donating whole blood remains strictly unchanged.
Speaking on behalf of the World Headquarters, Paul Gillies explained the rationale behind extending individual conscience to primary blood components:
“Blood remains sacred to Jehovah’s Witnesses, who continue to regard life and blood as precious gifts from God,” Gillies stated. “We recognize that medical decisions involving blood components are a matter of conscience between each Witness and their God, Jehovah.
The Bible does not explicitly comment on medical decisions involving separate blood components, and that same reasoning has now been extended to red cells, white cells, plasma, and platelets.”
Under the updated guidelines, Witnesses are now free to conscientiously choose whether to receive medical treatments using these four major components or donate blood specifically for the purpose of processing components and fractions to treat others.
However, donating blood for standard whole-blood transfusions or receiving whole-blood transfusions remains forbidden under church policy.
This update follows an earlier policy refinement in March 2026 (Governing Body Update #2), which granted members individual conscience regarding certain autologous blood procedures (the collection and reuse of a patient’s own blood during surgery).
Healthcare providers and medical organizations worldwide have noted that this policy shift significantly expands the range of blood-conservation therapies, treatments, and procedures available to over nine million Jehovah’s Witnesses globally.
