JW.org (Questions From Readers), “How Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Show Respect for Life?”
“After further prayerful consideration, the Governing Body has decided that this same principle applies to the four primary components of whole blood—red cells, white cells, plasma, and platelets—that are derived from another person’s blood. Therefore, each Christian must make his own personal decision about the use of these four primary components in all medical and surgical care.”
The article also states that Witnesses ‘do not accept transfusions of whole blood, nor do we donate blood that would be used as a whole blood transfusion to another person’, that each Christian must decide whether to donate blood ‘for the clearly expressed purpose of providing components or fractions’, and that it reflects what was shared in the 2026 Governing Body Update #6 and will appear in a future issue of The Watchtower.
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Provenance and verification note for JW.org (Questions From Readers), How Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Show Respect for Life?
Confidence note. Full article text opened on JW.org on 19 September 2026 and the quotations confirmed word for word.
Corroborated by. src-jw-2026-0918-gbu6, src-jw-2026-0918-press-release, src-ap-2026-0918-components
Notes. The article carries the note: ‘This article reflects what was shared in the 2026 Governing Body Update #6 and will appear in a future issue of The Watchtower.’ It also states the Governing Body ‘is not authorized to “go beyond the things that are written”’ (1 Corinthians 4:6).
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-jw-2026-0918-qfr-respect-life