Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) are a Christian denomination founded in the late 19th century in the United States with a focus on evangelism and nontrinitarian beliefs. Since 1945, the Governing Body of the Jehovah’s Witnesses have prohibited the use of transfusions based on passages from the Old and New Testament of the Bible requiring believers to “abstain…from blood,” which they interpret as applying to both food and medicine even though the Bible does not comment on transfusions or medical procedures such as surgeries. While JWs have been allowed to individually determine how their own blood will be handled since 2000—such as whether to undergo simple blood tests, cell salvage during surgery, dialysis, etc.—they have been prohibited from all transfusions until now. The Governing Body Update #2 from March 2026 now allows JWs to remove and store their own blood for autologous transfusions during surgeries. While this is a significant change, critics argue that the update does not go far enough and allow allogeneic transfusions.
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