The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has no doctrinal prohibition on receiving or donating blood transfusions. Modern medical procedures are considered morally permissible within the framework of caring for one's health, and the church does not identify any theological obstacle to standard medical care such as transfusions. No synodal document or patriarchal teaching has identified blood transfusions as prohibited.

The Ethiopian church operates medical clinics and hospitals in Ethiopia through church-affiliated institutions, and modern medicine is embraced as consistent with Christian care for the sick and vulnerable. The prohibition in Acts 15:29 on 'abstaining from blood' is interpreted in its original sense (not eating blood as food) and not as a prohibition on medical blood transfusions—a distinction that separates Ethiopian Orthodox teaching from the Jehovah's Witnesses' position entirely.