Pakistan Red Crescent Society

ISLAMIC VIEW of BLOOD DONATION & TRANSFUSION

Islam enjoins preserving human life and protecting it against all potential harm, affliction and hardship, and it insists on ensuring peace and security for human beings.

In the Quran, Allah says, "To save one life is to save all humanity".
Islamic law urges every Muslim to be in constant support of his community, and make it a legal requirement in many cases. According to a Hadith (saying by the Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him)),"He who relieves a believer of one form of distress, in this life shall be relieved by God of a greater distress on the Day of Resurrection" and "God will help any servant of His, as long as he continues to help his brother".
"A Muslim is a brother to every Muslim, he neither lets him down, nor does him injustice, nor gives him away".

Therefore, if giving blood to a patient is necessary for his survival, then, according to Islam, it becomes mandatory to donate blood`, as a case of implementing a basic Islamic principle which makes it imperative to preserve human life. Two important main Islamic rules are also applicable here, namely: "Harm must be eliminated" & "Necessity overrules constraints". Further more it is in agreement with the Islamic principles of social justice.

The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) says, "Cupping is a most useful type of medical treatment". He also says, If any of your methods of treating the ill is effective, an incision by phlebotomy scalpel is certainly one".

In the Hadith, there is an earnest call for phlebotomy and cupping, because of their proven benefits to man. It indicates that blood donation is not only harmless to the donor, but it is also useful to him, as it activates the process of replenishing blood cells. When blood is needed in the community, blood donation becomes a community as well as a person's individual obligation. If they fail to fulfil it, they shall be considered as having committed a sin.

God has given man a position of honor. "We have honored the sons of Adam". That is why, the selling of the human body, its organs or blood is forbidden.

The inferred meaning of three other Hadiths are: -
"Cut your vein with a scalpel and allow your blood to flow and you can do this once in three months".
"You can allow your blood to flow every 17 days, 19 days and 21 days" This is applicable to modern day Plasma and Platelet Pharisees
"Removing blood from your body improves your health and enhances your eyesight".

HISTORY OF BLOOD TRANSFUSION

The first recorded blood transfusion took place in the 17th century. The French physician Jean Baptiste Denis tried infusing sheep's blood into a human. Unfortunately, this was not successful. It was not until the discovery of blood groups and the issue of compatibility that transfusion therapy began to be successful.

Red blood cells were first described in the year 1658. Over 250 years later, the first four human blood groups, A, B, AB and O, were identified, followed by the Rhesus factors which separated people into Rhesus positive and Rhesus negative. Today, experts can determine blood groups very precisely, with over a hundred subtypes.

1616	Dr. William Harvey of England did the first systematic work when he established that, blood circulates in human body.
1665	Dr. Richard Lower of England performed the first recorded successful blood transfusion from one dog to another.
1678	Pope forbade blood transfusion by his proclamation.
1818	Dr. James Blundell invented an instrument for transfusing blood and was the first to show that only human blood can be transfused to another human being.
1901	Dr. Karl Landsteiner discovered ABO Blood groups.
1914	Dr. Hustin of Belgium discovered the technique of preventing coagulation of stored blood outside human body in bottle with the help of sodium citrate solution.
1932	Dr. Andre Bagdasarov developed the method of preserving blood collected from a donor in the bottle at 4 C temperature for 21 days by adding glucose with sodium citrate in a measured quantity in the blood bottle.
1936	Dr. Normal Bethune of Canada established the first blood bank of the world at Madrid in Spain during the Spanish civil War.
1940	Dr. Karl Landsteiner and Dr. Alexender Weiner discovered Rhesus factor in Blood.

The use of stored blood began during World War I (1914-1918), but the first large-scale blood banks, including Red Cross blood banks, were not created until the 1930s.