An Ikeja High court on Tuesday declared donation of blood by relations of patients in hospitals in Lagos State illegal and a violation of the rights of the donors.
The court also described the policy as arbitrary and unfair.
Justice Raliat Adebiyi made the declaration while delivering judgment in a suit, number ID/2759GCM/2018 filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) against the state government and all government hospitals in the state.
The Judge said: “Demanding compulsory blood donation from those seeking medical attention including maternity services, is arbitrary, unfair and a violation of their human rights including the rights to life and to equal opportunity for everyone within the health system.’’
The court therefore ordered the Lagos State Government to stop with immediate effect immediately and discontinue the policy of insisting on compulsory blood donations from patients or relatives of those seeking medical care and attention before they can access ante-natal, maternal or any health services in all public hospitals and health facilities in Lagos State.
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Meanwhile, SERAP has requested Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to “instruct the Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi to immediately, fully and effectively enforce the judgment of Justice Adebiyi.
In an open letter dated March 3, 2020, signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “the enforcement of the judgment will be a special moment for the implementation of the government’s strategies towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.
The open letter read in part: “As Justice Adebiyi stated in her judgment, your enforcement of the judgment will be consistent with Section 33 of Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended), which guarantees the right to life; and articles 2(a),3 and 12(1) of the International Convention on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, which requires the health system including in Lagos State to provide equal opportunity for everyone. Nigeria has ratified the covenant.
“The enforcement of the judgment will also show Lagos State as a champion of the SDGs and be entirely consistent with international standards and best practices, including those developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which recognise that the safest blood donors are voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors.
‘’The WHO has in fact recommended that no coercion should be brought to bear upon the donor to donate.
“The effective enforcement of the judgment will also improve maternal health, comply with WHO’s policy to improve the availability and use of safe blood to save the lives of women during and after childbirth, as well as ensure universal access to safe blood transfusion particularly for patients that are vulnerable to blood shortages and to HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C infections, in support of the SDGs”.
