If you are thinking that selling blood to stay alive is bleak, maybe don’t read the Gibson profile in the NYer? In the next timeline over, blood might be more common than water.
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Wow, sounds like other countries have an enormous problem with people not donating enough blood, especially plasma, if so much is being exported. I hope that everyone reading this story, whether in the USA or not, voluntarily donates blood on a reasonable schedule (plasma is the best donation type for AB blood type) so as to reduce the need for this. I do, but this article reminds me that my last donation was in September so I am eligible again.
While I understand the theory that paying might reduce donations by causing people who would donate to sell instead (or some kind of repugnance argument or just people feeling like they don’t need to donate), it does seem relevant that the countries that ban paying for plasma aren’t seeing enough donations and are importing so much of this plasma.
If the argument completely held, wouldn’t you see places where people can’t be paid for blood fulfilling their needs with donations instead of importing American blood products? That doesn’t seem to be happening at all; instead other countries aren’t getting enough donations but are importing this instead.
Whether or not there are enough people donating doesn’t change the possibility that less would give if there were a paid option.
It’s not the pay that is the problem here. It’s that the paid option ends up being used for commercial gain, with different regulations around safety of those providing the blood.
If the government paid, but maintained strict standards around donor safety, and supplied blood to public works (I.e. Hospitals) at the same rate while selling excess blood products on an as-available basis to commercial interests, then that might get us somewhere. Especially if donors could opt out of the remuneration.
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Again, I can understand the argument that perhaps fewer Americans give because a paid option is available in the USA. But are you suggesting that fewer Germans, French, British, Canadians, and others donate because a paid option is available in the USA, which they cannot avail themselves of? I doubt that many even know that it’s possible to be paid for it in the US, and I can’t imagine how it would alter their decision to donate.
If 70% of the world’s blood plasma supply is American, that suggests that the problem is elsewhere. Whatever funny memes people want to post about crazy tech billionaires wanting to live forever, this plasma is used for ordinary patients, to make Factor VIII for hemophiliacs, to make vaccines, and a wide variety of other uses (many of which are commercial interests, yes, including pharmaceutical companies worldwide.) I fully support any efforts to get the rest of the world to produce their share of blood plasma, and reduce reliance on exploiting the poor, but ignoring how many people’s lives you would endanger by banning the practice is crazy. Absolutely, if a country can demonstrate self-sufficiency via alternative collection methods that would be great, but all we’ve seen so far is self-righteous banning of paid plasma followed by importing it from the USA. It’s as self-destructive as total alcohol Prohibition on the basis of the reality of how alcohol can ruin the lives of the poor and exploited.
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Personally i don’t donate, i should and i know i could be making a difference but growing up i went through some minor medical problems that involved me getting blood drawn with more frequency than i cared for. So yeah not a fan of needles or getting my blood drawn, i also have veins that are notoriously difficult to find. I’ve had instances where they poked both arms repeatedly before they found a vein, and even then they didn’t properly hit it. Basically it’s a pass on me, I’ve never had a good experience with blood draws.
A few things to clarify.
People sell their plasma (or plasma products), but not blood. There’s negligible money for blood, so it’s almost entirely donations.
Even if you donate blood to a non-profit, the blood is being sold to hospitals for up to $300/pint.
There’s no reason to expect that even if paid plasma donations were banned and only non-profits allowed to collect it, that plasma products would become cheap and easily available.
So maybe the debate shouldn’t be whether to ban buying plasma, but whether people are being paid enough. We have a minimum wage, why not a minimum plasma price?
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I said nothing of the sort.
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You’re confusing quantity with quality.
Paid donations arguably increase quantity, probably at the cost of quality.
Where I am all donations are voluntary, with the product then ‘given’ to the free-at-point-of-consumption health service, and the excess sold offshore (with those funds then circling back to support the health system). Apparently this product is relatively sought after and valuable specifically because it’s a purely donor-based system. There’s simply no incentive for people of questionable health (IV drug users, HIV positive^, CJD risk, etc) to donate.
^ however see episode 3 here;
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/alice-sneddens-bad-news
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My kid needs one of the blood products from plasma donation. First, plasma donation takes like 2 hours (much longer than whole blood), so I think the “time” is what is supposedly being “reimbursed” and how payment ended up being legal. But the treatments the kiddo gets are between $10,000 and $15,000 each. I think the donor should get some of that. I just hate that it’s so little. Also, there’s a shortage right now (not sure how much of that is donation levels and how much is processing capacity). [I’m not arguing any particular point here; just adding some info to the mix.]
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Those are just that jurisdiction’s local laws. The FDA requires a 48 hour waiting period between donations, and giving plasma no more than twice a week.
As for predatory, well, I can see the point. The pay is actually pretty good for an hour of sitting on your ass and reading a book, but they turn around and sell it for vast profits for various uses and treatments. Given that our system routinely undervalues workers, that’s no surprise, and it’s still a rather sizeable hourly wage (for two hours a week anyway) for doing nothing. I did it myself when I was a young college student and minimum wage pay wasn’t cutting it. But I also volunteered for medical experiments, so I’m probably not the person folks should be listening to for advice on these things.
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How does a country ban child labour but still import the products of child labour?
How does a country ban slavery but still send its football team to Qatar for the WC?
How does a country have reasonable labour laws but still import products from countries with horrible labour conditions?
blood now accounts for 2% of the country’s exports – more than corn or soya.
Source?
@klossner kindly posted a link above:
https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/usa/all/show/2017/
A little over 2% by revenue is blood.
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And where is it exported?
https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/usa/show/3002/2017/
Mostly to Europe. Possibly because of Mad Cow.
I think this has the potential of exaggerating the blood component-- as it also includes vaccines.
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"You are not eligible to donate if:
From January 1, 1980, through December 31, 1996, you spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 3 months or more, in the United Kingdom (UK), or
From January 1, 1980, to present, you had a blood transfusion in any country(ies) in the (UK) or France.
[continues with more exceptions related to other European countries]
"
You can read the guidelines here:
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But the site you pointed is from the US.
My question is if people from UK have the same restriction when donation in the UK.
I’ve checked the NHS site (blood.co.uk), but it doesn’t mention anything about it.
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I’m just finishing my third year of donating plasma regularly and am averaging about 80 donations per year. I’ll hit number 100 this year for the first time. I give about eight times per month, twice a week on Friday and Sunday. You can give twice per week, and no more than twice every 48 hours.
The donors are real people who often do depend upon this extra money in their accounts. Those who want to curtail this practice in the US will cause the unintended consequence of decreasing the income of many of the poorest.
Also, some personal observations: In order to donate you have to maintain your health. It’s counter intuitive, but by donating I pay MUCH more attention to my health than I have in years. Note that we are given a required physical every 12 months. We give a blood sample for extensive testing every 4 months (three times per year). Every single time we donate we are screened for weight (too heavy or too light you can’t give), blood pressure and heart rate (too high or too low you can’t give), protein levels, and iron levels. Anything out of whack and you are “deferred” until you can meet the criteria. Every donation is screened for hepatitis, HIV, and syphilis.
One of the things I’m curious about is the use of the data generated by all of these screenings. My single donation center must have a huge database of basic physical information that can be correlated with the results of the blood tests. Two thoughts on this: is this data being sold and why am I not being compensated for that? The donation companies should have the ability to connect their information with other health records (with our permission) to determine what the real effect of donating frequency and duration is.
I have lots of detailed experience and subsequent thoughts of being a cow (moo) on all of this. Included is the experience of meeting some of the most fascinating people I’ve ever met in my life. There’s something about the conversations you have over the course of a few years with the same people, waiting in line with you at 5am for the center to open at 7am. At my center, most are black, blue collar working class, and some of the most interesting conversationalists I’ve ever met.
Moo.
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A creative way to make a few bucks in an era when workers have fewer rights than even serfs. #MAGA!
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Let’s NOT let Trump hear how much money the country makes on blood exports.
I donate to my local blood bank. You should too. Whole blood is every 8 weeks, or 16 weeks for the double-red-cell complicated thing, or (I forget if it’s one or two weeks) for platelets (they put back the rest, and it takes an hour or two), and I don’t know if they do plasma there or not. Donating whole blood works pretty well for me, and I bleed fast so I spend less time actually donating than the mandatory eat-cookies-and-wait after. My iron does tend to be low (I’m also vegetarian) so I’m not always eligible, but that just means taking some iron pills before and after to catch up.
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