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Medicine has a long history of being associated with things like the military and religion ("medicine man" being a term for a shaman, both spiritual leader and

Medicine has a long history of being associated with things like the military and religion ("medicine man" being a term for a shaman, both spiritual leader and healer in tribal cultures). The military emphasizes values like honor and the good of the group over the individual while also typically making strong promises to do right by those who make sacrifices. Profit motive seems to generally be counterproductive to health. If people will donate plasma etc to get "points," this potentially encourages people to donate bad blood into the blood supply because they expect to need an organ someday. I don't know how we might a/b test something like this to see what actually works, but people have good reason to be skeptical of profit-driven or personal-gain driven processes for things of this sort.

Atotalnoob 2y ago
Shouldn’t the blood be tested? I really freaking hope it is… Ban the person from donating blood if the blood is bad.
- DoreenMichele 2y ago
  It is probably a mistake to reply to this but there are bloodborne pathogens we don't keep stats on which are challenging to test for, so good luck with that.
  - Atotalnoob 2y ago
    Then how do we know we have “bad blood”?
    - DoreenMichele 2y ago
      It's possible for an individual to have a pretty good idea they aren't in good health and shouldn't really be donating without necessarily having affirmative tests for specific infections. It's a meme that homeless people sell plasma and are also alcoholic. You see jokes about stuff like that in TV shows or whatever. I don't know about you, but I don't really want my blood supply to primarily come from homeless people or relatives of people with genetic disorders at high risk of needing an organ transplant. The relatives may not have the disorder but may be carriers and may have health issues they aren't disclosing if their goal is to get points for their deathly ill loved one.
- loeg 2y ago
  Essentially the problem is that our testing isn't perfect.
lr4444lr 2y ago
I call BS. The reason blood donation isn't compensated is to avoid addicts polluting the supply for a $50 drug fix - these are not people who plan well long term about their health.
darkclouds 2y ago
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Atotalnoob 2y ago

Shouldn’t the blood be tested? I really freaking hope it is… Ban the person from donating blood if the blood is bad.

DoreenMichele 2y ago
It is probably a mistake to reply to this but there are bloodborne pathogens we don't keep stats on which are challenging to test for, so good luck with that.
- Atotalnoob 2y ago
  Then how do we know we have “bad blood”?
  - DoreenMichele 2y ago
    It's possible for an individual to have a pretty good idea they aren't in good health and shouldn't really be donating without necessarily having affirmative tests for specific infections. It's a meme that homeless people sell plasma and are also alcoholic. You see jokes about stuff like that in TV shows or whatever. I don't know about you, but I don't really want my blood supply to primarily come from homeless people or relatives of people with genetic disorders at high risk of needing an organ transplant. The relatives may not have the disorder but may be carriers and may have health issues they aren't disclosing if their goal is to get points for their deathly ill loved one.
loeg 2y ago
Essentially the problem is that our testing isn't perfect.

lr4444lr 2y ago

I call BS. The reason blood donation isn't compensated is to avoid addicts polluting the supply for a $50 drug fix - these are not people who plan well long term about their health.

darkclouds 2y ago

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