No More 'NO BLOOD' Card for Jehovah's Witnesses

The infamous Jehovah's Witness "no blood" card is gone. For decades, Watchtower told Witnesses to carry a signed legal directive in their wallets that told doctors that under no circumstances, including the risk of death, should blood be administered. AJWRB, an activist group, estimates that over 33,000 Jehovah's Witnesses died because of refusing blood.

That card has now been replaced by something far more tame, and, based on the disclaimer on Watchtower's own website, pretty pointless. The changes Watchtower did not announce say a lot more than the one it did. Together they form a pattern I'm calling the eraser playbook: remove the symbol, shrink the words, rewrite what outsiders see, delete the instructions members were given, and leave the members for last.

The Card Is Gone

For as long as I can remember, the front of this card had two big bold red words on it: NO BLOOD, with a blood bag crossed out right underneath. If you were raised as a Jehovah's Witness, you know exactly what card I mean, and you probably knew which pocket of your wallet it was in.

The new card went up for elders in English at the end of October, according to a former elder who leaked it and still has access. The front says Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, with a signed document inside. That's it. There's no big red "no blood" and no crossed-out blood bag.

That matters because those weren't just words printed on a little card. Watchtower policed them. In January 1993, Our Kingdom Ministry told every congregation in the United States that baptized publishers should never leave home without their advance medical directive card. It bragged about one congregation that checked on its members:

A recent check at one congregation meeting showed that one out of every five publishers did not have his card with him.

They were checking who had the card on them at the Kingdom Hall. The words they were looking for are gone, and the card isn't the only thing that has disappeared. Over the last few months, Watchtower has been quietly scrubbing the blood doctrine off its own paperwork, off the card, off its website, and off the pages Witnesses would show doctors. It has also scrubbed it out of its own library, where an article Witnesses were told to use for 20 years now just says, "Sorry, this document does not exist."

I was born and raised in this religion, and I left when I was 40, about nine years ago. I carried that card from the time I was a teenager, and I gave talks telling other people to carry theirs, too.

What Update Number Six Actually Changed

On September 18th, the Governing Body released update number six. Geoffrey Jackson, one of the Governing Body members, announced that the four main components of blood (red cells, white cells, platelets, and plasma) are now a matter of conscience. Before, they were completely banned, and you would be shunned if you took them.

Listen to how Jackson describes the old rule, because the rewrite starts right there:

And since the underlying principle is respect for life, it also includes avoiding blood guilt caused by murder or by careless or reckless conduct that could result in the loss of life. In all of those areas, Jehovah's Witnesses have shown a determination to reflect Jehovah's view that life and blood are sacred. With regard to blood, Jehovah's Witnesses have understood Acts 15 to mean they should not consume whole blood either by mouth or by transfusion and that they should not donate blood. This position has protected Jehovah's people spiritually and physically. We've also applied this principle to the four main components of blood. That's red cells, white cells, plasma, and platelets. Medical science has shown the effectiveness of treatments that avoid blood transfusions and associated risks.

"We've also applied this principle," he said, as if the four components were just a side note. That's not what Witnesses were told, and it certainly isn't what I read and was taught as a Witness. In June 2000, the Watchtower said that accepting whole blood or any of those four primary components violates God's law. Not "we've also applied this principle." Violates God's law.

Young Witnesses and old Witnesses, but most tragically the young, died holding that line as truth. Watchtower put some of them on the cover of Awake! The contents page of the May 1994 issue, "Youths Put God First," said:

In former times, thousands of youth died for putting God first. They are still doing it today. Only today, the drama is played out in hospitals and courtrooms with blood transfusions the issue.

One of the children in that issue was a 12-year-old girl named Lenae Martinez. She was in a hospital in Fresno, California, with leukemia. The doctors determined that packed red blood cells and platelets should be transfused. She refused, because that was the doctrine of the day. The doctors told her that if she refused blood, she would die in a few days. Awake! says that on September 22, 1993, Len fell asleep in death in the arms of her mother.

She needed red cells and platelets, two of the four things that as of this September are just a personal choice. They are no longer banned, and accepting them no longer gets you shunned.

Watchtower Kept Holding Up Children as Examples

Watchtower didn't stop pushing that narrative in the '90s. In August 2019, in the monthly program JW Broadcasting, Gary Breaux gave a talk called "Cherish Your Privilege of Prayer." In the middle of it, he told the story of a young boy named Jared Scepter, who was diagnosed with lymphoma at age 11 in the middle of 1991. His parents said of the treatment they sought:

In no way would we accept a blood transfusion, and neither would Jared.

Child protection services investigated the family, and the parents said the agency backed away completely after realizing they hadn't been negligent. Jared died at home in June 1992. The last thing he said to his parents was "work hard so we can all be together again." Then came the speaker's conclusion:

No, Jehovah didn't miraculously cure Jared. But through his endurance and strong faith, Jared gives a witness to the universe that even a child that trusts in Jehovah can prove his loyalty to death.

Twenty-seven years after Jared died, he was being held up by Watchtower as the example for its members to follow, including, we can only assume, the children. We should be careful here. The broadcast doesn't say what treatment he was offered, what treatment he took, or whether a transfusion would have saved his life. But it does show what the organization was holding up as an example of faithfulness just seven years before this complete reversal.

The Promised Chart and the Six-Week Gap

Later in update number six, Jackson promised that something was coming:

To help each of God's servants to make an informed personal decision, the Governing Body has approved the release of a simple chart. It identifies some of the more common products derived from blood. The chart, along with the "Questions From Readers" article based on this update, will soon be released on jw.org and in the JW Library app. In addition, Watchtower study articles are being prepared to discuss this matter further, and an updated medical directive will be available soon.

He went on:

After considering these and other factors, each Christian must decide whether or not he will accept a component or a fraction derived from another person's blood. The congregation will not get involved in that decision, and individual Christians should not judge others. There's usually no need to discuss these personal medical decisions with individuals other than the health care agents listed on your medical directive. At your request, the local Hospital Liaison Committee is ready to support you in your decision. The brothers can help you find doctors who will respect your conscience, and they will keep your decisions confidential.

So an updated medical directive was coming, and that was September 18th. The elders got a letter the same day saying that until the new card was ready, publishers could document their personal decisions using forms, documents, or procedures that are legally recognized and locally accepted. For about six weeks, then, the only card Watchtower had for Jehovah's Witnesses still told doctors that under absolutely no circumstances should red cells, white cells, platelets, or plasma be accepted, even if it meant the Witness was going to die.

On JW Talk, a forum meant only for active Jehovah's Witnesses, people were asking about the new card. One member wrote:

I have also been wondering whether we will receive new blood cards that will allow us to clearly express our wishes, since the current cards no longer seem to fully reflect the present understanding.

They got a reply: "Yes, new DPAs are in the works." Over on the ex-JW Reddit on September 20th, just two days after the announcement, somebody made a prediction:

Why do I have a feeling the new DPA card will not have "no blood transfusion" written on it? Calling it now so we can come back when the new DPA drops.

Well, it dropped, and he was right.

Step One: Remove the Symbol

That big red "NO BLOOD" on the front of the card wasn't decoration. It was the whole point. In October 1991, Watchtower sent a letter to every congregation with instructions on how to fold the card so the right panel faced out:

The words "Medical Directive" should definitely be visible, and it is desirable to show the words "No Blood" and the symbol below that.

It went on: "If you change wallets or purses, be sure to transfer this document so that you always have it with you." And it ended: "These documents can serve their valuable purpose only if they are carried and available at all times."

By 1997, it wasn't just a card. Witnesses were to carry two documents, the card plus a longer state legal form in the United States. A question-and-answer sheet sent to every congregation in the U.S. said to fill out both for the best protection against an unwanted blood transfusion. It even said that unbaptized publishers should recognize the seriousness of refusing a blood transfusion under any and all circumstances. Any and all circumstances. How much has changed.

In 2004, the medical directive was folded into the durable power of attorney, and Our Kingdom Ministry said the original DPA card, not a photocopy, should be kept on your person. It even said book study overseers may periodically check with those who have not filled out new cards. The "NO BLOOD" and the crossed-out blood bag were both still there on the 2016 edition, printed right on the panel that faces out when the card is folded. Watchtower wanted any medical professional you came into contact with to see that clearly in an emergency.

This is not ancient history, either. In the February 2023 Watchtower, a study article told every congregation:

Because we appreciate the gift of life, we fill out a durable power of attorney / advance health care directive and carry it with us at all times.

And if you needed to fill one out or update one, "do not procrastinate." That was less than four years ago. Now both of the things Watchtower wanted clearly visible in your purse or wallet are gone.

Why Remove the Part Designed to Be Seen?

If you follow my channel, you probably know what I think. That symbol is part of what governments began to notice. In December 2022, Japan's Health Ministry put out guidance on child abuse connected to religion. Question 4-5 asks whether refusing a transfusion for a child for religious reasons would constitute abuse. The answer was that not letting a child receive treatment a doctor judged necessary is neglect. In parentheses, it says that forcing them to carry a card or similar document stating that they refuse blood transfusion would also constitute neglect. A government document specifically named the blood refusal card as part of how children are neglected.

A lawyers' group in Japan surveyed 581 people who were raised as second-generation Witnesses. More than 80% of them said that at some point they carried a transfusion refusal card or an identity card saying their parents didn't want them to get a transfusion. Watchtower has been suing the Japanese government over that since March 2025.

Now stop and think about what a big bold red "NO BLOOD" with a crossed-out bag would look like to a judge in Japan looking at that guidance, and what Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care looks like. One looks like a religion telling its members to die. The other looks like standard-issue legal medical paperwork.

I can't show you a memo where Watchtower decided this based on Japan, so I can't prove it directly. But I can point to a government that specifically named the blood refusal card, and the part of the card that made its message impossible to miss is exactly the part that was removed from the front.

The Children's Card

There's also a second card, and I haven't seen a new version of it yet. Children got their own identity card, filled out by the parents. That same 2004 Kingdom Ministry told parents to ensure that a card for each minor child is properly filled out and signed and that the child carries it at appropriate times. That is the exact thing Japan's guidance called neglect. So far, the only new card to surface is the one for adults in English.

Look at the language on the children's card. Here's a 2001 edition:

We are Jehovah's Witnesses and hold strong religious convictions. Hence, we do not accept allogeneic blood transfusions. It is widely known that such transfusions carry risks of hepatitis, HIV, and other health hazards. Our informed decision is to avoid these risks.

Watchtower told Jehovah's Witnesses in print that this was God's law. But to the doctor treating that child, it was presented as a medical risk decision. God's law isn't mentioned at all. Hold on to that, because we'll see the same two-way talk on their website.

The symbol wasn't softened; it was removed. The card now looks like any other form a hospital might hand out.

Step Two: Shrink the Words

Open the old card to section two. Here's the 2016 edition:

I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and I direct that no transfusions of whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets, or plasma be given me under any circumstances, even if health care providers believe that such are necessary to preserve my life.

Then one more sentence: "I refuse to pre-donate and store my blood for later infusion." Compare that to the new one:

I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and I direct that no transfusions of allogeneic donor whole blood be given me under any circumstances, even if health care providers believe that such are necessary to preserve my life.

That's all it says now. The four components have been removed from the document. The sentence about storing your own blood is gone, too, because Governing Body update number two from March of this year made that a personal decision as well.

Take a look at that new word, "allogeneic." Most Jehovah's Witnesses I knew probably couldn't tell you what it means, but it's a medical term for blood that comes from somebody else. It's the same word Watchtower uses on its website for doctors. A card that used to be written for the person carrying it is now written for the hospital reading it.

Section Four Flips the Default

The new card gets interesting at section four, the blank lines where you write in your own instructions. The 2016 card said "such as current medications, allergies, medical problems." The new one says "specify personal choices regarding use of components, fractions, current medications, allergies."

If a Witness still wants to refuse red cells or plasma, the way they were taught their whole life because it was God's law, they now have to write that in by hand. The Witness has to express that refusal themselves. It's not being dictated directly by Watchtower. You'll see why that matters in a bit.

The default of refusing everything up front has flipped. The old card refused almost everything except the few fractions a Witness wrote in as acceptable. Someone on Reddit put it well: if section four is left blank, there is nothing on the document to suggest that components or fractions are rejected. Another person there pointed out why a blank line is better than a printed list: they can change the policy at any time and not have to change the document.

Section Five Is Unchanged, and Confusing

Section five didn't change at all. It's word for word the same:

Family members, relatives, or friends may disagree with me, but any such disagreement does not diminish the strength or substance of my refusal of blood or other instructions.

"My refusal of blood," blood in general. To a nurse skimming that, it reads like a blanket refusal on a card that now only refuses whole blood from a donor. That sentence concerns me because it's confusing. In my non-medical-professional opinion, it would be easy for a doctor or nurse to misunderstand it and think the Witness is refusing all blood.

The Feeding Tube Phrase

One more small, odd change. Section six is where you give your health care agent power to make decisions on your behalf. The 2016 card gave them full power and authority to consent to or refuse treatment, "including artificial nutrition and hydration," on my behalf. The new card just says to consent to or refuse treatment on my behalf.

"Artificial nutrition and hydration" means feeding tubes and IV fluids. I looked through the entire Watchtower library with as many search queries as I could think of to see if Watchtower had ever said anything about feeding tubes, and I couldn't find a single article. That phrase only lived on that old legal form, and now it's off the card without a word of explanation.

Why Is the Congregation Providing This Form?

Somebody on that same thread asked what I think we all need to be asking: "I thought the GB said it's a matter of conscience and that the congregation would not get involved. Why is the congregation providing this form?" That's a very fair question.

In January 2023, the meeting workbook told every congregation that elders can help you fill out your DPA card, and that when you tell the elders you're facing a medical situation involving blood, they will promptly contact the Hospital Liaison Committee (HLC) on your behalf. Now the official line is that there's usually no need to discuss these personal medical decisions with anybody but your agents, and that the HLC will help at your request. The entire situation around blood has been upended, with some very confusing parts that I'm concerned will really hurt Jehovah's Witnesses.

The British version of the previous card went even further. The 2023 edition, the latest I could find, says:

I consent to my relevant medical records and the details of my condition being shared with the emergency contact below and/or with members of the Hospital Liaison Committee for Jehovah's Witnesses.

Before, the committee was written right into the form, and now it's a matter of conscience. I haven't seen the new British card yet, but when it surfaces, that's the first line I'm going to check.

So in step two, the card went from refusing five things and your own stored blood to refusing one very specific thing, while still carrying a sentence about "my refusal of blood" that sounds like refusing blood generally. Hold on to that one remaining refusal. It matters more than anything else on the card, and I'll show you why.

A Pattern We've Seen Before

Why would Watchtower create such a confusing card? We can't know for sure, but look at what happened with the education update. For decades, you couldn't go to college. If you did, you were looked down on. If you were an elder and your kid went to college, you might get removed as an elder. It was very strongly spoken against. Then in 2025, all of a sudden, it became a matter of personal choice. But the Watchtower editions that followed still talked badly about higher education and made it sound unnecessary. For the most part, Watchtower encouraged people to get just the minimum education they needed to pioneer or work for them for free.

It looks like the same thing is happening here. The card has gotten vague, the instructions have gotten vague, and it's now a matter of personal conscience. The question is what they are going to start saying about blood from the platform and in the publications. We'll find out, because Jackson said that was coming, too.

Step Three: Rewrite What Outsiders See

Watchtower has an entire medical library on jw.org, and it's not intended for Jehovah's Witnesses. It was put there for doctors. One of the main pages is called "Bioethics and Law." This is an archived copy from September 2025:

However, Jehovah's Witnesses believe that allogeneic blood transfusions, i.e., whole blood, red blood cells, white cells, platelets, and plasma, and preoperative autologous blood deposit (PAD) for later reinfusion are prohibited by several biblical passages.

That sentence was still live on jw.org on October 26th, well after the September 18th update that changed the rules. I know because a staff member on JW Talk quoted it word for word that day and said that if you applied it as printed, it would count as misinformation. A community manager responded:

I'm sure the brothers are working to identify and replace all the articles on the website that need updating, but it will take some time.

Then he said something revealing: in this specific case, it's not a publication but an article on the website for doctors who look for information about Jehovah's Witnesses. For me, that's another indication that Watchtower was scrambling because of what's going on in Japan.

Watchtower did finally update that page as of November 1st. Here's what it says now:

However, Jehovah's Witnesses believe that several biblical passages prohibit transfusions of allogeneic whole blood. Decisions involving blood's main components and fractions, as well as the use of one's own blood, are matters of personal choice.

For about six weeks after the update, the page doctors were reading was wrong. Then, the same week the new card came out, they fixed it.

On the front of the medical library there's now a banner: "Their religious position against the transfusion of whole blood, based on the biblical command to abstain from blood, remains unchanged." So they're acting like nothing has really changed. That's absolutely not true. I call these weasel words, because specifically, it is true: they're still banning whole blood, just not anything else. But to a casual reader it sounds like nothing has changed when it really, really has.

The banner then says this adjustment extends a principle of personal decision-making which has "already" been applied to plasma-derived therapies and autologous blood management. To be fair, some of that is true. Autologous blood management means using your own blood, not just storing it, and some of it, like recycling your blood during surgery, has been a personal decision for a long time. But storing your own blood ahead of time was not a personal decision. The 2016 card said, "I refuse to pre-donate and store my blood for later infusion." That changed in March of this year, and the four components became a personal choice in September. Saying "already" makes it sound like this is the way it's always been.

So the card got cleaned up for hospitals, and the website got quietly cleaned up for doctors. Now look at what happened to the instructions given to Watchtower's own members. This one actually came first, months before the new card was issued.

Step Four: Delete the Instructions

In November 2006, Our Kingdom Ministry came with an insert called "How Do I View Blood Fractions and Medical Procedures Involving My Own Blood?" I was a Witness at the time, and I remember it well. If you were a Witness, you probably filled it out, too. It was quite confusing. It had two worksheets: one listed blood fractions and you checked accept or refuse, and the other listed medical procedures. It told you exactly what the worksheets were for:

These worksheets are not legal documents, but you may use your answers on these worksheets to help you to complete your DPA (durable power of attorney) card.

That was the instruction manual for filling out the card. Here's how it opened:

Thus, Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept transfusions of whole blood or the four primary components of blood, namely red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma. They also do not donate or store their own blood for transfusion.

For years they pointed people to these worksheets. In January 2011, Our Kingdom Ministry said to use the worksheets in the November 2006 insert to make your personal decisions about what options you would accept or refuse. The April 15, 2011 Watchtower sent readers there, too.

But if you go to that insert in Watchtower's online library today, you get: "Sorry, the document does not exist in English publications." It's gone. It's not even listed in the table of contents for that issue anymore. That's part of Watchtower's revisionist history, and they do this kind of thing all the time. But the Internet Archive saved it. Here's a table of contents from December 2025 with the insert right there, and the article itself saved on January 30th of this year. It was live, and now it's not. The other articles that send you to it are still up, pointing to an article that, as far as Watchtower's library is concerned, doesn't exist.

I can't give you the exact day it was removed, but on JW Talk in late October, a member wrote that they had retroactively changed an old Kingdom Ministry insert about medical procedures, and that it happened some four months ago. My guess is that it came down after the March change about storing your own blood, since the worksheet says you can't do that.

To be fair, you could argue that an old insert should come down once the rules have changed. But they didn't just correct it. They didn't put a note on it saying this was the old understanding and here's what's changed. They made it disappear. And this is the organization that less than three years ago was still telling its members the opposite in writing.

A Father Told No, Then the Same Scriptures Used for the Change

AvoidJW published an interview with a German Witness father who wrote to the branch office in 2024, asking for more personal latitude, more room for his conscience when it came to blood. The branch wrote back in January 2024:

The prohibition against blood is thus entirely consistent and rigorous from its first mentions in Genesis through the Mosaic law to the earliest Christian writings.

Entirely consistent and rigorous, until all of a sudden it wasn't. AvoidJW noticed that in his letter, the father had cited two scriptures: 2 Corinthians 1:24, that no human should be master over another person's faith, and 1 Corinthians 4:6, about not going beyond the things that are written. In update number six, Geoffrey Jackson cited those exact same verses to explain why the four components have become a personal decision. In 2024, a father who cited those scriptures was told no. In 2026, they're the reason for the change. Within a couple of years, your own blood became your own personal decision, then the four components did, and then the worksheet that said otherwise disappeared.

In case you've never been a Jehovah's Witness, they refer to their religion as "the truth." By that they mean that every other religion on earth is false and was put there by the devil to mislead people away from the truth, so that they get destroyed at Armageddon. Do these complete reversals sound like the truth to you? If something was true yesterday, it's true today. If it wasn't true yesterday and you change it, then yesterday it wasn't the truth. Today it might be, if it's actually true. But Watchtower refers to the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses as the truth from wall to wall, no matter how much they change, which is logically impossible.

The takeaway from step four: if a teaching is wrong and you're an honest person or an honest organization, you go back and correct the record. When you delete the record, you're hoping nobody notices there ever was one.

Step Five: Leave the Members for Last

The blood card was cleaned up for hospitals, the website for doctors and medical professionals, and the worksheet was deleted. But the main Bible course, the book they study with anybody they're trying to convert, still says this right now. Enjoy Life Forever!, Lesson 39:

Some procedures clearly violate God's law. These include the transfusion of whole blood or any of its main components: red cells, white cells, platelets, and plasma.

There's a chart with plasma, white cells, platelets, and red cells all in a column labeled "unacceptable." A footnote says:

You may need to explain your personal decision not to accept transfusions of whole blood or of red cells, white cells, platelets, or plasma.

If they updated the card and the website, why haven't they updated this lesson? That was still live as of November 1st. I saved it. Six weeks after the Governing Body said the four components were a matter of personal choice or conscience, new Bible students were still being taught that accepting them clearly violated God's law. The doctors' page was wrong for six weeks, too. The difference is that they went back and fixed that one.

Remember the 2023 meeting workbook? It told every congregation that Lesson 39 of the Enjoy Life Forever! book can help you make medical decisions that involve the use of blood. The lesson they pointed members to for filling out this card still teaches the rule the card has now dropped.

All of this is why, in my opinion, this was a Watchtower scramble. They were getting in trouble in Japan and they knew it, so they had to do something and do it fast. That's also indicated by update number six, where Geoffrey Jackson said there was a need to get this out quickly and that it would be translated into other languages soon.

Believing Jehovah's Witnesses are doing exactly what they were trained to do. On JW Talk after the update, a member wrote, "The conviction of those who have already thrown their DPA away must have been very fragile." A forum moderator wrote, "My DPA is staying unchanged." And on the day the new card surfaced, the community manager wrote about an emergency where there was no time to separate blood into its parts, and told members: "Friends, don't be so quick to assume whole blood is never used."

The One Refusal That Remains, and Why It Matters

That community manager, of all people, put his finger on the one thing the new card still refuses. Think about when a card in a wallet actually gets read. It's not when you're sitting in the doctor's office explaining your personal convictions and choices. It's read when you can't speak, when you're lying unconscious after a car wreck and somebody is going through your wallet. That's what the card was for, and that is when, in the Jehovah's Witness perspective, it would come to their rescue.

If section four is blank, nothing on the card stops a doctor from giving an unconscious Jehovah's Witness red cells or plasma, and that could save lives. But there is that one refusal of whole blood.

Whole blood is pretty rare in routine hospital care in places like the United States, but it's making a comeback in emergency situations involving massive bleeding and trauma. A survey of the National Trauma Registry found that 38% of trauma centers reported using what's called low-titer whole blood by 2021, and use at top-level trauma centers has kept rising since. In poorer countries it never went away. The World Health Organization says only 52% of the blood collected in low-income countries gets separated into components. In a lot of the world, whole blood is simply what a transfusion is. That matters for Jehovah's Witnesses because they're growing in parts of the world where that's the case, even as they flatline and shrink in the West, where it's used less often.

So the one prohibition left on the card lands when a Witness finds themselves in a trauma bay, and in the countries where Witnesses are growing fastest. Lenae Martinez refused red cells and platelets in 1993 because she was taught that God absolutely forbids them, something Watchtower kept teaching for decades. Now they're a personal choice. But the kind of transfusion the new card still turns down is the one a growing number of trauma teams are reaching for when somebody is bleeding out after an accident.

To give you an idea of how confusing this must be to medical professionals, a hospital worker on Reddit described what this looks like on the floor: a patient or family member says, "I'm a Jehovah's Witness. I don't take blood," and staff hears a blanket refusal. The advice to co-workers was not to assume the card or the family statement reflects September 2026. The doctors don't know whether they're going to take it or not, or what the rules are. It's vague and confusing.

The Disclaimer

The irony is that the same JW medical section where they posted the banner about the new directives carries a disclaimer, which was there in the archive copy from last year, too. It says the section provides neither medical advice nor treatment recommendations and does not substitute for an appropriately qualified health care provider. It then addresses patients directly: always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider regarding medical conditions or treatments.

Think about that. For decades, the organization told you that if you accepted whole blood or any of the four primary components, you were violating God's law. They gave you a card to sign saying you absolutely refused all of it, and they had the elders help you fill it out. And on the website, the official position is that nothing they say is medical advice and you should listen to your doctor. Lenae Martinez's doctors gave her their advice, and she and her parents didn't follow it. Neither did about 33,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, according to AJWRB.

One Reddit user put it this way: they have had this disclaimer on their website for years, saying they could not be relied upon for medical advice and to trust your medical professional, yet still demanded that publishers not accept blood or its four main components. My take is that the disclaimer isn't meant for you. It's there for the lawyers.

The Eraser Playbook, Side by Side

Put Watchtower's five moves side by side. You remove the symbol, the most visible part of the card, and the part a government might take exception to; Japan has. You shrink the words until the card refuses only one thing, and you make it confusing and vague. You rewrite the pages doctors read, the same week the new card comes out. You delete the worksheet members used and, in my view, pretend it was never there. And you leave the Bible course, the members, and the people who believed it most for last. They still haven't updated that training manual.

Here is why I think it's happening this way. Watchtower says its position on whole blood remains unchanged, as laughable as that is, and it needs that to be true. If the doctrine had simply been wrong, and they never admit they were wrong, then the people who refused red cells or plasma because of a card telling them to were following a rule that, by Watchtower's own new reasoning, went beyond the things that are written. That's a lot of people. If 33,000 are estimated to have died, imagine how many people in total refused blood when it might have helped them. Instead of saying it was wrong, they keep one refusal on the card and quietly take down everything else that says otherwise.

So yes, the new card might save some people's lives, and I'm truly glad for that. But look at what it was designed around: a front that a government can't point to anymore, a word that hospitals use but members generally don't, one refusal kept so Watchtower can say nothing fundamental has changed, and a Bible course that still teaches the old rule to the people filling out the card. That card used to protect the doctrine. Now, as far as I can see, it protects the organization.

Keep the Old Card as Evidence

One Reddit user put it in a way that really stuck with me:

Do not destroy your old blood card, because that card is evidence of what the organization expected you to refuse when your life was on the line.

I have compared Watchtower's behavior many times to 1984 by George Orwell. The Ministry of Truth practiced revisionist history, destroying the past so people think what was said in the past was never said. Watchtower has done this many times as well, from changing dates and statements about when they said the end was coming in new editions of their publications, to pulling videos off their website when they become inaccurate or embarrassing. I think that Reddit poster is right. If you have the old no blood card, keep it as evidence. The new card is evidence, too.

My read is that the front of the new card is blank because somebody decided the words "no blood" had become a legal liability, specifically in Japan: not just for the people who carried the card, but for Watchtower itself.