Jehovah’s Witnesses and Medication: Albumin and Other Blood-Derived Ingredients

Some medicines contain an ingredient made from human blood. The one this guide focuses on is albumin, a protein prepared from donated plasma, which is used to stabilize certain injectable medicines and biologics. For Jehovah’s Witnesses, jw.org says that accepting a blood fraction such as albumin is a personal decision for each Witness. On September 18, 2026, jw.org announced that the same now applies to the four main components of blood: red cells, white cells, plasma, and platelets. The refusal of whole blood transfusions is unchanged.

This guide explains what jw.org now says, where albumin can turn up in medicine, and how to find out whether a product you are offered contains it. It does not tell you what to decide. As jw.org describes it, that decision rests with each Witness’s own conscience. Like our other faith guides, such as the halal medication guide, it sets out the ingredient facts and leaves the decision with you.

What jw.org says about blood, components, and fractions

The position changed in September 2026, so it is worth being precise about what jw.org says today.

• Whole blood. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not accept transfusions of whole blood, and do not donate blood to be used as a whole blood transfusion. jw.org describes this as a core teaching based on the command to “abstain from blood,” and it is unchanged.
• The four main components. Since September 18, 2026, the decision to accept red cells, white cells, plasma, or platelets from another person’s blood is, in jw.org’s words, a matter of personal conscience. So is the decision to donate blood for the clearly expressed purpose of providing components or fractions for someone else.
• Fractions. jw.org’s information for clinicians says the religious understanding of Jehovah’s Witnesses does not absolutely prohibit fractions derived from the primary components of blood, naming albumin, immunoglobulins, clotting factors, and hemoglobin solutions, and that Witnesses have a wide range of views about them.
• Your own blood. Earlier in 2026, jw.org said each Witness decides about the use of his or her own blood in medical and surgical care.

jw.org’s article on the change expects Witnesses to reason differently: some may reject every product derived from another person’s blood, while others may accept certain ones. It says the congregation will not get involved in that decision, and that individual Christians should not judge others. The same article says the Governing Body still regards the matter as very serious and urges each Witness to give it prayerful thought. One practical caution: materials published before September 2026 describe the earlier position, under which the four main components were not accepted. If you are reading an older document, check its date.

What albumin is, and where it shows up in medicine

Albumin is the most abundant protein in blood plasma. The form used in medicine, human serum albumin, is prepared from pooled plasma from many donors. Because it protects other proteins from clumping together, sticking to surfaces, and oxidizing, it is used as a stabilizer, one of the inactive ingredients, in some drugs and biologics. A 2023 review found that human albumin is a stabilizer in the majority of botulinum toxin products used for medical and cosmetic injections. A chart published on jw.org in 2026 lists albumin as a plasma fraction that makes up about 2 percent of whole blood.

If you are checking your medicines, start with injections, infusions, and biologics, since the examples the review this guide cites describes of human albumin as an inactive ingredient are injectable products and biologics. Our guide to reading a drug label shows where to find the full ingredient list for a prescription product, which is often not on the pharmacy sticker.

Some medicines are not just stabilized with a blood fraction; they are one. The fractions jw.org names include immunoglobulins and clotting factors, and its 2026 chart notes that some clotting factors can be manufactured without blood products. If you are offered one of these, ask how the specific product is made, because the answer can differ from one product to another.

Before a procedure, or a new injectable

jw.org advises health-care providers to find out in advance which products and procedures each Witness patient will accept. It says Witnesses carry an advance medical directive that sets out their wishes about blood fractions and related procedures, and that an updated directive will be made available after the 2026 change. Bringing yours up to date, and sharing it with your prescriber, pharmacist, and hospital, is a practical way to make sure your wishes are known before an injection or infusion is given.

You do not have to arrange care alone. Care designed around patients who decline transfusion is known as bloodless medicine and surgery, and a 2018 article in a hematology journal describes dedicated programs built on it. jw.org says its network of more than 2,000 Hospital Liaison Committees can, at your request, help you find doctors who will respect your decisions, and will keep those decisions confidential.

How to check your medication

• Ask before any injection, infusion, or biologic: “Does this contain albumin or any other ingredient made from human blood?”
• Read the full ingredient list, not just the pharmacy label, and ask whether any albumin listed is human albumin made from donated plasma.
• Ask about alternatives. Another product or form may exist. Our guide to compounded medication explains when a pharmacy can prepare a version without a particular ingredient, and where compounding does not apply.
• Keep your advance directive current and share it with everyone who prescribes, dispenses, or gives you medicine.
• See the ingredients for yourself in the app. The AllergenMeds app flags ingredients made from human blood, such as albumin, in the exact product you look up, so you can see them and make your own decision. The decision is yours.

infoThis guide is for education only, not medical advice. Always talk to your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping, or switching any medication.