The organization People Against Race Classification is seeking the scrapping of the race-classification question in the official form completed when donating blood. They say race classification for blood donation serves no medical purpose.
The group visited the offices of the Western Cape Blood Services in Cape Town to demand that the requirement to state your race be reviewed.
A sore topic for some in a country still grappling with the effects of institutionalized racism. PARC says it takes offence that blood donors must state their race in the confidential donor questionnaire of the Western Cape Blood Service.
They say the Blood Service has no obligation to report on the race of a blood donor. They want the race block on the blood donation form removed.
"On the 13th of March, the PARC visited the head offices of the Western Cape Blood Services to enquire on the use of the race criteria on the blood donation form when you donate blood. We envision South Africa without any race criteria on any forms, race is not scientific, it's a social construct," says Glen Snyman, Founder People Against Race Classification.
