Jehovah's Witnesses lift ban on blood transfusion components in ruling hailed as 'massively significant' for patient safety

From the Newshound archive · first published 22 September 2026 · last updated 23 September 2026.

The Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses has issued a ruling permitting members to accept the four main components of donated blood — red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma — according to individual conscience. Announced on 18 September by Governing Body member Geoffrey W. Jackson, the decision dismantles a prohibition of several decades that had repeatedly brought the organisation into conflict with the courts when dying patients refused treatment on religious grounds. Medical ethics experts described it as a "big change in teaching" that opens the door to life-saving interventions for the denomination's 9 million members globally, among them 144,000 in the UK. Whole-blood transfusions remain forbidden under the organisation's reading of Acts 15:28-29.

Over the past 15 years, courts have repeatedly stepped in to override blood-refusal decisions by Jehovah's Witnesses, frequently in cases where parents rejected treatment for their children.

The ruling also allows members to donate blood for separation into its constituent components for other patients' use — a further break from previous doctrine.

The prohibition on blood components had distinguished Jehovah's Witnesses from most other Christian denominations since 1945; minor fractions such as albumin had already been left to personal discretion.