It was between the years 1900-02, when Karl Landsteiner and colleagues discovered blood groups A, B, AB and neither A nor B (or O). This discovery not only led to a Nobel Prize in the year 1930, but also brought in a concept of blood banks. When the first blood banks were set up (Leningrad 1932, Chicago 1937), altruism must have been one of the key motives. One could donate blood, and the bank would use it for the needy. Quite unlike the color of the skin, blood was always red, oxygen filled bright red from an artery and oxygen depleted dark red from a vein.
Does Blood defines character ?
Much before these discoveries, stories of blood were part of popular literature in Europe. In one such fictional story from 1898, a medical student who is a Jew, even replaces five liters of his blood from that of four German Christians. While an attempt to convert ones racial identity fails in this story (The operated Jew), the thought was that it could. There were many other popular stories at that time, where blood was a powerful bearer of one’s character. Aryan blood had to be kept pure, and this was translated quite literally.
Blood disgrace incident
In 1935 a surgeon Hans Serelman, transfused his own blood to a Nazi Soldier. Soldier’s life was saved, but the blood in question was of a surgeon who was of Jewish ancestry. Hans was arrested and served time in a concentration camp. His crime was Rassenschande or blood disgarce. This was in far-away Nazi Germany, land of the evil. USA at that time was liberal and progressive. Many Jews, were fleeing persecution, were making it home. This includes Landsteiner, who had moved there in the year 1923.
Plasma from Blood
The second world war had begun in the year 1939, and war casualties were mounting. Charles Drew, an American Surgeon had discovered techniques to extract plasma from blood, and store it over a long time. In 1940, Charles Drew developed “Plasma for Britain” program, wherein plasma from American blood was to be separated, and transported across Atlantic to the British Isles.
Blood is Black or white
The next year, in 1941 American Red Cross took over this project. It exhorted Americans to donate blood, so that blood and its products could we sent to the war zone. A few months later, Japanese attached Pearl Harbor, and US Army had joined allies at the war front. The same year Wanda Douglas, an African American worker approached a blood donation center in Baltimore. She was rejected, and was told that her blood could not be used for the military. She was black, and military personnel were white. This incident made it to the local newspapers, as another step towards racial segregation.
This was not an isolated incident. American Red Cross was indeed segregating blood as either black or white. Black donors were either turned away, or their blood was labelled as “N” and processed separately. “White men would not tolerate black blood flowing through their veins.” Red Cross quipped. Negro blood is not acceptable, headlines screamed. Charles Drew, himself an African American was then assistant director of American Red Cross. He resigned in protest. Even he could not donate blood for the very program he had launched. Racism had defeated science and logic.
Black and White becomes Red, but with a price
American Red Cross continued this blood segregation policy till 1948. War was over, by then and white military did not need much blood. Some southern states, such as Alabama and Louisiana continued black and white segregation of blood till the 1970s. Meanwhile Charles Drew died in a road traffic accident in the year 1950. It was much later in 2023, that American Red Cross issued a public apology for these decisions. The article on Red Cross website is aptly titled “The color of blood”.
These policies had their toll on the blood donor program. The proportion of donors who are African American remains low, not only in the US, but also in UK. Meanwhile children with certain hemoglobin disorders such as thalasemia or sickle cell disease need blood transfusions. As these genetic diseases are linked to race, US and UK have launched campaigns for more blood donations from individuals with these ancestries. Such campaigns again raise the issue, if blood is black, white or actually red. There are only a handful of rare blood groups, where this racial identity may have a scientific basis.
“Gay ban” of the 1980s
In early 1980s we discovered a new disease AIDS, and its infectious agent HIV was discovered a few years later in 1985. Consequently, in 1980s individuals who declared themselves as gay or bisexual were banned from donating blood products. This was done as risk of HIV transmission was high in these groups. By 1999 we had a sensitive nucleic-acid amplification test (NAT) to detect even the minute quantities of HIV virus in blood samples. Over next decade, NAT was made mandatory in all blood banks across the world. However the “gay ban” has persisted since its inception in many countries of the world.
Stamps from Bahamas have a more alarming slogan “AIDS kills“. These stamps are more factual and depict HIV virus and laboratory testing
In 2022 a few countries in Europe lifted this ban altogether. In others it is conditional to when they self-reported last sexual contact. American Red Cross, now attempts to shrug off its black or white blood legacy, by declaring blood donations as more and more inclusive. India is one of the countries which bans blood donation based on sexual orientation alone, and most recent of these guidelines came up in the year 2017. While these guidelines have been challenged, we are not there as yet, as Indian courts continue to debate this issue. Indeed, science takes a long time to establish facts, perception takes even longer to be dispelled.