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What about people who don't donate blood? No blood for them?
by petercooper 11y ago
What about people who don't donate blood? No blood for them?
- ceejayoz 11y agoNo, I think that'd cross a major ethical line. First, there's not an ongoing, nationwide shortage of blood - we have enough of it, so people aren't dying needlessly because they can't get it. Second, requiring an invasive medical procedure on a live subject is hugely different to cadaver organ donation. We already have an ethical framework in which the government at least partially controls post-death use of the body - autopsies, regulation of burials, etc.
- petercooper 11y agoI wonder what keeps US blood stocks healthy. Here in the UK there seems to be an alarming story every few months about how we barely have more than a few days' stock. Even just recently: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/05/sharp-drop-new-blood-donors-uk-stocks-at-risk http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/05/sharp-drop-ne... .. no-one gets anything for donating blood here though, if The Simpsons is even slightly realistic (!) sometimes people in the US give blood for cash?
- ceejayoz 11y ago> Here in the UK there seems to be an alarming story every few months about how we barely have more than a few days' stock. That's how they drive up supply. When it gets too low here in the US they'll actually use phone banks to call regular donors to ask them to come in. I'd imagine the UK has something similar. > if The Simpsons is even slightly realistic (!) sometimes people in the US give blood for cash? I believe it's illegal to pay donors for blood, but plasma donation can be paid. It's problematic. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/05/blood-money-the-twisted-business-of-donating-plasma/362012/ http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/05/blood-mone...