The “Watchtower Blood Map” displays the general geographic locations for cases where “Jehovah’s Witnesses” and the issues of “blood transfusions” (or “organ donations”) were reported or documented. Many original stories were reported by local media outlets. Others were sourced from individuals who may have been self-reporting or were sharing the story of a family member.

The RED MARKERS on the map represent people who survived their health crisis whether they accepted or rejected blood. Most of these were cases involved the courts taking temporary custody of a minor and then, by court order, allowed the doctors to use blood as a treatment to save the child’s life.

The BLACK MARKERS are all those who died – whether they got blood or not. Some who fall in this category did get a transfusion, but due to delays caused by having to process the cases through the courts, the death of a minor resulted even if blood was finally used.

Due to privacy issues cases not reported or published by media may only display initials. Available sources are cited in the details. All links were active at the time of posting, but please let us know if a supporting link is no longer functioning. We have backup resources for most cases that we can substitute to provide a working link.

The Map’s goal is to combat the false notion promoted by the leaders of the Watchtower organization that “most Witnesses survive their health crisis without the use of blood.” This map, even though it only provides a snapshot of known and reported cases, shows a very contradictory and disturbing picture.

The map is by no means a complete representation of every patient or medical emergency when the use of blood was an issue. No matter how newsworthy the circumstances might be, many cases are never reported to or by the media. Nor are medical situations when people do not take blood – and yet they manage to survive. For purposes of our map, we will only record the information that we found reported by the public media or by other sources deemed reliable.

In come cases, deaths have occured where members were confused or not fully informed about the blood policy. Just to be sure that they would not “break any rules,” some choose to refuse all parts of blood – even when the use of a permitted blood product might have saved their lives.