Red Crescent to make ‘halal’ drugs with Turkish blood

ISTANBUL

DHA Photo

A recent Turkish Red Crescent initiate is set to be turned into a factory-supported production process, making medicine out of Turkish people’s blood in order to rule out any risk of non-Islamic dietary impact, according to the organization’s head, Ahmet Lütfi Akar.

Akar told daily Hurriyet that the move could both eliminate dependence on drugs imports, as well as providing Muslim Turks with assurances that their medicine complies with their religious codes.

“For instance, if we are buying medicine from Britain, it is made out of the blood and plasma of the blood of the people of that country. We have different dietary habits from those countries. Being a Muslim nation, we do not eat pork. We don’t eat some of problematic foods, but these exist in the medicine that we import,” he said.

Akar said treatment through one’s own national production would be healthier. “We will eliminate imports, and create an opportunity to export to Islamic countries. There will be no change in the regulation of receiving blood donations; no one will be asked whether or not they eat pork. 95 percent of Turkish people already don’t eat port anyway,” he told daily Hurriyet.

Meetings with the Health Ministry have already taken place and the project is also supported by the prime minister, he said, adding that further details would be announced in detail in a month or so.

Turkish Medical Association head Özdemir Aktan, however, ruled out any chance of his association offering scientific facts to support the Red Crescent’s point.

“There is no scientific fact that says national blood is more helpful. Being a doctor, how can I possibly say that one blood is halal, and the other isn’t? We are just watching events unfold in complete shock,” Aktan said.

July/19/2013