What Is the Most Precious Fluid of All?

“Blood is to health care as oil is to transportation.”​—Arthur Caplan, director of the bioethics center at the University of Pennsylvania.

OIL. Is that the most precious of fluids? In these days when fuel costs often soar, many might think so. In truth, though, each one of us carries around a few quarts of a far more valuable fluid. Think of it: As billions of barrels of oil are extracted from the earth every year to quench mankind’s thirst for fuel, some 90 million units of blood are drained from humans in hopes of helping those who are ill. a That staggering figure represents the blood volume of some 8,000,000 people.

Still, like oil, blood seems to be in short supply. Medical communities worldwide warn of blood shortages. (See the box “Desperate Measures.”) What is it that makes blood so valuable?

A Unique Organ

Because of its amazing complexity, blood is often likened to an organ of the body. “Blood is one of the many organs​—incredibly wonderful and unique,” Dr. Bruce Lenes told Awake! Unique indeed! One textbook describes blood as “the only organ in the body that’s a fluid.” The same reference calls blood “a living transportation system.” What does that mean?

“The circulatory system is like the canals of Venice,” says scientist N. Leigh Anderson. “It transports all the good things,” he continues, “and it also transports a lot of junk.” As blood makes its way through the 60,000 miles [100,000 km] of our circulatory system, it comes into contact with nearly every tissue in our body, including the heart, kidneys, liver, and lungs​—vital organs that process and rely on blood.

Blood brings many “good things” to the cells of your body, such as oxygen, nutrients, and defensive help, but it also carries away “junk,” such as toxic carbon dioxide, the contents of damaged and dying cells, and other waste. The role of blood in waste removal helps to explain why it can be dangerous to come into contact with blood once it leaves the body. And no one can ever guarantee that all of the “junk” in blood has been identified and removed before it is given to someone else.

 Without question, blood performs functions that are essential to life. That is why the medical community has made a practice of transfusing blood into patients who have lost blood. Many doctors would say that this medical use is what makes blood so precious. However, things have been changing in the medical field. In a sense, a quiet revolution has been underway. Many doctors and surgeons are not so quick to transfuse blood as they once were. Why?

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Desperate Measures

Medical experts estimate that 200 million more units of donated blood are needed worldwide each year. Developing lands are home to 82 percent of earth’s inhabitants, yet less than 40 percent of all blood donations come from such places. Many hospitals in those lands cope without blood. The Nation, a newspaper in Kenya, reports that ‘every day almost half of the procedures requiring blood transfusion are either canceled or postponed because of lack of blood.’

Blood shortages are also common in wealthy countries. As populations have aged and medical techniques have advanced, surgeries have increased. Additionally, more and more blood donors are turned down these days because of high-risk lifestyles or travel that may have exposed them to disease or parasites.

An atmosphere of desperation seems to have developed among those responsible for stocking blood. Youths, who generally have less-risky lifestyles, are sometimes targeted as a safe blood source. For example, schoolchildren now supply 70 percent of the blood in Zimbabwe. Blood-collection centers are keeping longer hours, and some countries even allow them to provide compensation in order to recruit and keep donors. A campaign in the Czech Republic invited citizens to quench their thirst with quarts of beer in exchange for some of their blood! In one area of India, authorities recently went knocking on doors looking for donors who might be willing to help replenish an exhausted blood supply.