RismadarVoice Reporters
September 20, 2026
The Humanist Enabling Life Project (HELP) has criticised the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ position on blood transfusion, describing its current policy as contradictory and potentially harmful to patients who require blood in medical emergencies.
HELP, in a statement signed by its director, Leo Igwe, said the organisation’s recent decision to allow members to accept certain blood components based on individual conscience did not go far enough.
The group was reacting to an announcement by the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses on September 18, 2026, concerning its position on blood and blood components.
According to the religious organisation, members may individually decide whether to accept red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma or platelets from another person’s blood.
It also said members could decide whether to donate blood for the purpose of producing components or fractions for another person.
However, the organisation maintained its longstanding refusal of whole-blood transfusions, citing its religious interpretation of the biblical instruction to “abstain from blood.”
HELP said the distinction remained problematic because, in its view, it left members with an unclear position on blood transfusion while retaining the prohibition on whole blood.
“Jehovah’s Witnesses should stop approbating and reprobating on blood transfusion,” Mr Igwe said.
He described the policy as harmful and argued that allowing some components on personal-conscience grounds while maintaining the ban on whole blood was inconsistent.
Mr Igwe, who is also Vice President of Humanist International, alleged that the policy had contributed to deaths and serious health consequences among Jehovah’s Witnesses and others affected by the prohibition.
He urged the organisation to acknowledge what he described as past mistakes and withdraw the prohibition completely.
“Jehovah’s Witnesses’ controversial and despicable policy on blood transfusion has cost so many lives,” he said, calling for an apology.
HELP also referred to a case in Calabar, Cross River State, which it said occurred in 2025.
According to the organisation, Basic Rights Counsel obtained a court order allowing doctors to administer a blood transfusion to a baby who required the treatment.
HELP alleged that officials associated with Jehovah’s Witnesses at the health facility subsequently pressured the child’s parent to have the baby discharged against medical advice.
The group said it could not establish what eventually happened to the child.
“No one knows what eventually happened to the baby; whether the baby died or survived,” the statement said.
HELP further alleged that there had been other cases in which children suffered serious consequences or died after parents or relatives declined blood transfusions because of their religious beliefs.
The group said it was not seeking a limited relaxation of the policy but wanted the Jehovah’s Witnesses to completely withdraw their prohibition on whole-blood transfusions.
It also called for an explicit apology over what it described as the consequences of the organisation’s blood policy.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ stated position, however, remains that decisions concerning certain blood components are matters of individual conscience, while its religious objection to whole-blood transfusions remains in place.
