Is blood transfusion permissible?

Answer

Blood is najis. It is najaasat-e-ghaleezah (heavy impurity). It is haraam to use filth for any purpose whatsoever. It is not permissible to use blood for medical treatment. However, according to the Shariah, if no halaal remedy/ medicine is available, then treatment with a haraam remedy will be permissible, not incumbent.

When there is a dire need and no halaal medicine is available, then it will be permissible to use a haraam remedy, including blood, if available. However, the permissibility of using filth and haraam in times of dire need does not justify nor permits saving haraam substances for future use. For example, during starvation, if a person is on the verge of death, it will be permissible for him to eat just sufficient pork to save him from perishing. But this permissibility does not condone establishment of pork 'banks'. Pork may not be kept in freezers in anticipation of some future calamity when the pork can be used on account of dire necessity (Dhuroorah).

Blood banks are not permissible and so too is blood donation not permissible. It is just like donating urine and faeces and storing the filth in faeces and urine banks. Faeces banks are already a reality. Read the article appearing on this page. Both faeces and urine are used for medical treatment. Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said:

"Allah has not created cure for my Ummah in substances which have been made haraam for them."

Dutch scientists open faeces bank to treat chronic gut infections

Dutch researchers have now opened the country's first "faeces bank" in a cut-ting-edge branch of medicine to treat people with chronic gut infections.

"Our faeces bank will help give doctors and hospitals access to transplants of faecal matter," Leiden University microbiology professor Ed Kuijper said.

The Netherlands Donor Faeces Bank will collect, store and distribute the stools for such transplants. Often this was the only solution for people suffering from chronic intestinal infections, and in particular Clostridium difficile (CD), a bacteria which could develop in patients, particularly after lengthy and heavy courses of antibiotics, Kuijper said.

"Certain antibiotics destroy intestinal flora, which allows bacteria to develop and spread," he said.

"Transplants of faecal matter allow healthy bacteria to be put back into the body, which then spread in the intestines and recreate healthy flora."

About 3 000 people are diagnosed with CD annually in the Netherlands, and about 5% of cases become chronic. About three to four transplants of faecal material are carried out in the country every month.

In some cases, such infections can be fatal after triggering severe diarrhoea, inflammation of the colon and even intestinal perforations.

Donors must be "in good health, neither too overweight or too skinny and must have good intestinal flora". Unlike in the US, where two faeces banks were opened last year, donors are not paid. Donations are collected from anonymous donors at home. The donated stools are taken to the bank in Leiden and transformed into a product which can be transplanted either through a nasal endoscopy or directly via a colonoscopy. - AFP

Wisconsin, U.S.A. lost both his hands, feet, parts Rasulullah (Sallallahu of his arms and hands "to alayhi wasallam) said: a rare blood infection "When a dog drinks from transmitted by dog salithe utensil of va".

any of you, then He has undergone ten opwash it seven times." erations.

"The purification of your "The loss of circulation utensil when that cost him part of his a dogs licks limbs and almost took his from it, nose and upper lip, will is to wash it sev- require reconstructive en times - the surgery in stages over the first wash being next year."

with sand." (Associated Press)

A man in According to Islam, keeping pet dogs is not permissible.

While guard dogs, sheep dogs and the like are permissible they should not be brought into the house.

Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said that the Malaaikah (Angels) of Mercy do not enter a house wherein there is a dog or a picture (of people or animals).

Allah Ta'ala is the Creator. He knows what is best for us.