Witnesses may choose to store and receive their own blood
The March announcement allowed members to decide whether their own blood could be collected, stored and returned during medical care. This concerned a patient’s own blood; the separate change on donor components followed in September.
What changed
- Pre-operative storage and later transfusion of a patient’s own blood became a personal decision.
What stays in place
- At the time of this announcement, whole blood and the four main components from another person were still prohibited. The component rule changed on 18 September 2026.