About this site
JW & Blood is an independent information site about Jehovah’s Witnesses and their blood doctrine. It is critical of the policy and its effects on patients and families. The pages distinguish official teaching, published research, personal accounts and this site’s commentary.
Editorial position
The site’s main criticisms, with the evidence supporting each one.
Claim 1
The organisation should explain why treatments once prohibited are now personal choices.
What it rests on. The 2000 and 2004 Watchtower articles prohibited the four main components. The September 2026 announcement leaves them to individual conscience.
Claim 2
The history should include the people who refused treatments under the earlier rule.
What it rests on. The May 1994 Awake! describes Lenae Martinez refusing red cells and platelets during treatment for leukaemia, and reports her death. Those components are now personal choices. That account does not establish what her outcome would have been with transfusion.
Claim 3
A policy change should also address its past consequences.
What it rests on. The September 2026 Questions From Readers article explains the revised interpretation but does not discuss deaths following refusal under the earlier policy.
Claim 4
Personal choice needs to be considered alongside the history of congregation penalties.
What it rests on. From 1961, deliberate, unrepentant acceptance of blood could lead to disfellowshipping. The September 2026 article says congregations will not intervene in decisions about components or fractions. How that change works in practice requires evidence over time.
Editorial standards
These standards apply to factual claims and commentary throughout the site.
- State the official teaching accurately.
- Quote the relevant publication in context before discussing objections to it.
- Provide sources.
- Use original publications, research and judgments where available. Identify claims that depend on secondary accounts.
- Label estimates.
- Published estimates of deaths are not verified counts. State the assumptions and limitations behind them.
- Identify commentary.
- Keep the site’s conclusions separate from descriptions of what a source says.
- Show verification limits.
- Say when an original text has not been read or a document has not been authenticated.
- Correct published errors.
- Explain substantive factual corrections to published content, with their date and the affected section.
This site has no connection to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society or to Jehovah’s Witnesses, and speaks for neither.