Can we give blood to the hospital i.e. donate blood?
Answer:
As Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullah wa Barakatuh
We acknowledge receipt of your query wherein you asked regarding the Islamic perspective on Blood donation. Our answer is as follows:
The fundamental Islamic ruling with regards to blood donation is that it ought not to be permissible unless in situations of real and extreme necessity. By extreme necessity it is meant that a patient would (in the view of a medical expert) lose his life if he were not given a blood transfusion and that there was no other alternative or substitute for treating his particular ailment. Hence, according to the dictates of the above mentioned principle, the ruling with regards to donating blood would be that if there is a patient on the throes of death and the doctors say that there is strong hope that a transfusion would save the patient’s life and an urgent appeal for donation is made at the spur of the moment, then one would be permitted to donate blood, otherwise not.
However in view of the challenges facing the medical fraternity in this time and era this ruling (with regards to blood donation) in its essence is not applicable due to the fact that there are stringent regulations that have to be adhered to before a donor’s blood can be considered suitable for transfusion into a recipient such as screening the donor’s blood for diseases such as HIV, etc it would thus be difficult to get suitable blood on the spur of the moment.
Based on the aforementioned one is allowed to donate blood when the call for donations is made, even though there may not be (at that specific moment) an urgent appeal made for a patient who is on the throes of death. The donor, however, should donate his/her blood with the intention that the blood must be used in times of extreme necessity for someone who is in dire need of it.
One should however bear in mind that although donating blood for times of necessity would be allowed (as explained above), buying and selling of blood would not be permitted under any circumstances. Also noteworthy is that it would not be permitted to donate such large amounts of blood that would subject the donor himself to undue and intolerable weakness [Ref: Nizaamul-Fatawaa Pg. 391].
AND ALLAH TA’AALA KNOWS BEST
Muhammad Z Panchbhaya