JEHOVAH’S
WITNESSES
More than 11 years revealing secrets because there is no excuse for secrecy in God’s true religion – The Watchtower, June 1st 1997; Dan 2:47; Matt 10:26; Mark 4:22; Luke 12:2; Acts 4:19, 20.
JEHOVAH’S
WITNESSES
More than 11 years revealing secrets because there is no excuse for secrecy in God’s true religion – The Watchtower, June 1st 1997; Dan 2:47; Matt 10:26; Mark 4:22; Luke 12:2; Acts 4:19, 20.
Governing Body Gerrit Lösch with Update #2
Published: March 20th, 2026
For decades, Jehovah’s Witnesses were coerced into not pre-donating and storing their own blood for later use. Since then, thousands have died because they wanted to “please their God.”
A March 2026 Governing Body update says Jehovah’s Witnesses may now decide for themselves whether to store and later reinfuse their own blood, reversing a long-standing policy that treated this as unacceptable. That raises painful questions about how many Witnesses previously refused potentially lifesaving treatment under a rule the Governing Body has now downgraded to personal conscience.
The Drastic And Life-Changing Decision
“We do not donate blood, nor do we store for transfusion our blood that should be ‘poured out.’ That practice conflicts with God’s law.” -1989 Questions From Readers
If you’re not one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, there are usually three things people know about them right away: they don’t celebrate holidays, they’re known for knocking on your door to preach their views, and they don’t accept blood transfusions. That last one has long been one of the most defining and controversial parts of their beliefs. For years, Jehovah’s Witnesses were taught that this did not apply only to donated blood from someone else, but also to their own blood if it had been taken out, stored, and later used again. Watchtower made that position very clear, until now.
“The Bible does not comment on-“
In a Governing Body Update #2, on March 20th, 2026, Gerrit Lösch says that each Christian must decide for himself how his own blood will be used in medical and surgical care, including whether it may be “removed, stored, and then given back.” Whether they are trying to guide the Organization to be more mainstream or push away their guilty conscience, this reversal of the long-standing ban on stored autologous blood will be earthshattering and heartbreaking to many Witnesses who have lost their loved ones. The rationale presented in the transcript is that Christians are not under the Mosaic Law and that “the Bible does not comment on the use of a person’s own blood in medical and surgical care.” That is a remarkable pivot for an organization that previously grounded the prohibition in the claim that once blood leaves the body, it must be poured out, not banked.
And yes, the plain-language problem remains: reinfusion is still a transfusion. Calling it a conscience matter does not change the mechanics. Blood is removed, stored, and later returned to the bloodstream. For years, Watchtower literature insisted that this violated the biblical logic it used to defend the wider blood ban. If the leaked update becomes official, the Governing Body will have shifted one category of blood transfusion from forbidden to personal choice without changing the underlying medical reality. Same product, same pipeline, different label. Compliance departments love a rename, and reality rarely does.
The paper trail makes the contradiction even harder to ignore. Older Jehovah’s Witnesses’ advance medical directive forms explicitly told members to refuse blood transfusions “under any circumstances” and, under procedures involving one’s own blood, to refuse to “predonate and store” blood for later infusion. A 2006 ministry insert likewise said Witnesses “do not donate or store their own blood for transfusion.
The Cost
In 2016, an article “Jehovah’s Witnesses and Blood – Tens of Thousands Dead in Hidden Tragedy” An AJWRB medical adviser reported that since 1961, 33,246 Jehovah’s Witnesses died. On an annual basis, that works out to an average of 594 deaths per year, with 1220 deaths in 2016.
The Journalist, Lee Elder, goes on to say, “There are numerous deaths on an annual basis, more than all of the victims of the People’s Temple massacre in Jonestown, Guyana, that claimed 918 lives on November 18, 1978.
AJWRB has seen many examples of deaths that have occurred due to the Jehovah’s Witness blood ban, and we have documented many of these experiences so that others can understand what has happened and learn from it. The simple truth, however, is that the Watchtower Society is a large organization with more than 8 million members. When one of these cases leads to a premature death, it is always tragic. However, it is seldom newsworthy unless a child, adolescent, or pregnant JW is involved. As a result, the vast majority of these cases are not covered by the media and remain unknown.”
The reality is that most deaths are documented under their immediate medical causes, such as hemorrhage or severe anemia, rather than the underlying factor of transfusion refusal. Global health databases don’t track “refusal of blood” as a category, and there’s no centralized reporting from the religious organization itself. The result is a fragmented picture, with the true impact likely underrepresented. That means we will never truly know how many have lost their lives due to the no blood doctrine, but it is for sure in the thousands.
Jehovah’s Witnesses were taught that stored blood was off limits because blood removed from the body was no longer to be kept for later use. Now the same organization appears ready to say the opposite: that whether one’s own blood is removed, stored, and later reinfused is a matter of personal conscience. So the obvious question lands with a thud: how many Witnesses refused surgery or treatment under the old rule, and how many suffered or died because they believed that refusing stored blood was required by God? That is not a rhetorical flourish. It is the invoice left on the table whenever a “clarification” replaces a prohibition in a life-or-death policy.
As a personal note, AvoidJW has received countless emails and messages throughout the years regarding losing a loved one due to the No Blood Doctrine. It is a terrible, emotionally exhausting, and unfair mistreatment for a religion to dictate its followers’ lives in such a manner. How many children, women, and men have died due to this Blood Doctrine? Now, after a simply 16 minute Governing Body update, the fate of their lives could have been different.
There have been countless global legal battles regarding blood transfusions, which you can find upon research.
Not the First Time
In 1989, Questions From Readers asked how a Christian should view having blood withdrawn and stored before surgery. The answer said the Christian should decide “in line with his conscience trained by the Bible,” then reasoned that blood removed from the body should be “poured out” and therefore “disposed of.”
In 1967, The Watchtower framed human transplants as a form of cannibalism. By 1980, the organization reversed course and said the issue was for the individual Christian to decide. That historical pattern matters because it shows how Watchtower can move a medical prohibition from “divine principle” to “personal conscience” without ever fully reckoning with the damage done while the old position ruled the room.
And before today, JW.org would say that both allogeneic blood transfusion and “preoperative autologous blood deposit (PAD) for later reinfusion” are prohibited. Multiple articles are stating so. At the same time, it acknowledges that “many of Jehovah’s Witnesses accept autologous blood management techniques such as blood salvage and hemodilution.” That is already a patchwork. The 2026 new Update will widen the conscience zone even further by moving stored self-donated blood into the personal-decision category.
The Painful Truth
Personal Testimonies:
Former Jehovah’s Witness Jerrod P., UK – “I lost my wife due to the no blood rule. I almost persuaded her to take the transfusion. She was so weak, and I had alarm bells in my head that this wasn’t what God should want. I held her hand as the liaison committee urged her not to. After going back and forth about the research and worries, with her wanting to “please Jehovah,” she died 2 days later. It destroyed me and my love for God. I couldn’t bear serving him since.”
Former Jehovah’s Witness Jlynn, U.S.A. “I was in a terrible accident with my JW family. In the ICU, one of the first things my father asked me, as I puked up blood in immense pain, was, “Did you really sign to allow a blood transfusion?” It assured me how terrifingly important this doctrine was to him, when life and death were actually staring him in the face.”
Former Jehovah’s Witness, Carrie S., Australia: “When I heard about the leak of the new GB Update on their change with Blood Transusions, my blood literally felt like it was BOILING. How DARE they! I have lost two family members to the no blood doctrine. I’ve seen many others suffer under the same. They should be ashamed of themselves!!”
Reversals in life-or-death policy do not happen in a vacuum. They happen after court fights, coroners’ findings, public criticism, legal pressure, and the accumulation of stories too painful to keep buried under euphemisms like “new light” and “conscience matter.” The real breaking news will not just be that stored blood is now a personal choice. It will be that a rule once enforced as sacred was always more negotiable than the rank and file were led to believe.
No apology is expected. But the record is being kept anyway. As the Governing Body has made clear in past decisions, there is no need for them to apologize for getting things wrong, even when it comes to people’s lives they are handling. We have yet to see the outcome of this decision and how it will affect not only Former Jehovah’s Witnesses, but also how active Jehovah’s Witnesses will react, especially those who have lost loved ones due to “pleasing their god” and refusing blood transfusions. Our hearts go out to those who have. Yesterday, a Jehovah’s Witness could have died due to the Blood Doctrine rules. Today, they may have been saved. This is something that should never be forgotten
References
Transcript of Governing Body Update relating to the Blood Doctrine:
Gerrit Lösch:
“Jehovah God is the Life-Giver, and he wants us to respect the gift of life. One way we show respect for life is by obeying his commands concerning blood. Jehovah gave Noah and his descendants the timeless command: “Only flesh with its life, its blood, you must not eat.” He likewise directed Christians to ‘abstain from what is strangled and from blood.’ As Jehovah’s Witnesses, we conscientiously obey this command today. It also affects the decisions we make about medical treatment involving blood.
When making decisions about blood, we have also been guided over the years by what the Mosaic Law stated in Leviticus 17:13: “If one of the Israelites or some foreigner who is residing in your midst is hunting and catches a wild animal or a bird that may be eaten, he must pour its blood out and cover it with dust.”
However, is that law binding on Christians? The simple answer is no. For one thing, Christians today are not under the Mosaic Law. As the apostle *Paul said, as recorded in Colossians 2:13, 14: “God… erased the handwritten document that consisted of decrees and was in opposition to us. He has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the torture stake.”
Therefore, Christians are not under the command that blood be poured out and covered with dust. Furthermore, the Bible does not comment on the use of a person’s own blood in medical and surgical care.
Regarding the use of one’s own blood, our position is as stated in the October 15, 2000, issue of The Watchtower. There it says: “A Christian must decide for himself how his own blood will be handled in the course of a surgical procedure, medical test, or current therapy.”
For that reason, many Christians accept simple procedures, such as blood tests, as well as more complicated procedures involving their own blood, such as the use of heart-lung machines, cell-salvage devices, and kidney dialysis treatments. However, the list of treatment options continues to grow. Therefore, after much prayer and consideration of the Scriptures, the Governing Body has decided to clarify our position on the use of a patient’s own blood in medical and surgical care. The clarification is this: Each Christian must decide for himself how his own blood will be used in all medical and surgical care. This includes whether to allow his own blood to be removed, stored, and then given back to him. Some Christians may decide that they would allow their blood to be stored and then be given back to them. Others may object. Each Christian must make his personal decision on all matters involving the use of his own blood for medical or surgical care.
In review, Christians are not under the Mosaic Law. However, we obey the apostolic command to abstain from blood. Furthermore, the Bible does not comment on the use of a person’s own blood in medical and surgical care. Therefore, like other choices about health care, each Christian must make his own decision about the use of his own blood in all medical and surgical care.”
End of Transcript
To learn more about what Jehovah’s Witnesses believe in as far as Blood Transfusions:
JWfacts: Jehovah’s Witnesses & Blood Transfusions
Wikipedia: Blood Transfusions and Jehovah’s Witnesses
Medical Protection: JW’s and Blood
JW Publications: