Blood Donation – An Act of Benevolence

Donating blood is like gifting a new life. Blood donation is a very noble act, as losing just a pint of blood would make no difference to a healthy individual, while a needy patient may get a new life. But this noble act is also being misused by some parts of the society.
There have been many cases where donated blood, which is supposed to be supplied for free to the needy, is sold to the patients by unscrupulous medical practitioners. This act is very wrong and against human rights. This may be a result of lack of awareness of the facilities of donated blood available for free. The masses should be educated that donated blood is free for every needy person and not for sale.
There are also many cases reported about the undue advantage taken of the high demand of blood in hospitals. Because there is not ample supply matching the high demands, people sell blood, which is not safe. There may be a possibility that it is HIV infected. This problem should be addressed with the intervention of Govt. for stopping the vice, which discourages people from donating blood. It should be specified that the donation programs are voluntary and even the blood is available for free, as selling blood is inhumane and should not be entertained for interests of selfish people.
A blood donation session should also have a pre and post donation counseling and the facilities to transport blood in emergencies to various places and to provide provides Health Professional test results to blood donors in addition to ensuring retention of the blood donors. It is very important to ensure timely supply of safe blood throughout the world.
Blood donation is not only an act of humanity but also of communal harmony. There have been many cases wherein people of different religions have donated blood for total strangers only as a noble act of humanity which breeds communal harmony. This act itself talks about humanity as strangers donate blood not knowing who would be its recipient. One should be aware that one unit of blood can save four lives and it is better to shed such narrow and racist thoughts of donating blood only to people of one community.
There is also a great initiative taken of opening blood donation camps in the mosques, a place of worship for the Islamic religious Can You Die From Chemotherapy sect. If all the religious sects start following such an initiative, the demands of blood supply could be surely met.