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What's your stance on "donating" blood plasma?

I’ve had a little of a debate with a commenter recently where they’ve argued that “donating” (selling, in their words, because you can get money for it) your blood plasma is a scam because it’s for-profit and you’re being exploited.

Now, I only have my German lense to look at this, but I’ve been under the impression that donating blood, plasma, thrombocytes, bone marrow, whatever, is a good thing because you can help an individual in need. I get that, in the case of blood plasma, the companies paying people for their donations must make some kind of profit off that, else they wouldn’t be able to afford paying around 25€ per donation. But I’m not sure if I’d call that a scam. People are all-around, usually, too selfish and self-centered to do things out of the goodness of their hearts, so offering some form of compensation seems like a good idea to me.

In the past, I’ve had my local hospital call me asking for a blood donation, for example, because of an upcoming surgery of a hospitalised kid that shares my blood group. I got money for that too.

What are your guys’ thoughts on the matter? Should it be on donation-basis only and cut out all incentives - monetary or otherwise? Is it fine to get some form of compensation for the donation?

Very curious to see what you think

FlashMobOfOne ,
@FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world avatar

TBH, it was a crucial life line for me at a tough time in my life economically.

I didn’t have the energy to work a part-time job and just 90 minutes a week translated to an extra $400-$500 bucks a month.

At its core, it shouldn’t be necessary for people to sell blood and plasma, but Americans vote for for-profit health care and their own impoverishment every two years, so regardless of one’s thoughts on the matter, your very blood is now commoditized at the consent of the voters.

rustyfish ,
@rustyfish@lemmy.world avatar

Never heard anyone getting payed for donating anything in Germany. You can get an compensation for expenses, yes. But this is not supposed to be a payment for your donation, it is supposed to compensate for your expenses. For example: Finding a babysitter or paying for bus, train, gas. Sometimes you have to make a medical examination beforehand, which also can take some time.

The German Red Cross for example explicitly doesn’t pay the donors so nobody gets the wrong idea and tries to donate as much and often at the cost of their own health.

I think the idea that a compensation is equal to a payment is flawed beyond reason. If someone has a problem with any organisation misusing donations for profit, they should (rightfully) engage in changing the law. Categorically not donating at all is…well it’s just selfish and stupid.

Wrufieotnak , (edited )

Both from Germany:

I remember that in my high school time many in my year went to plasma donation as often as it was allowed to collect the compensation. So while you are right that is legally never called payment, people with a need for cash for sure sell their plasma for money.

Oh and in the public sector there is or at least was in the past also the possibility for donating blood and you get the 2 hours or so for that paid as normal. So the government donated the money for a good course.

lucullus ,

In germany - I think - blood and plasma donations are most commonly done with the DRK (German Red Cross). I might be wrong, but DRK is not a for profit organization, but “gemeinnützig”. Organizations with that status get controlled by the government for it, so they are non-profit. I think the 25€ are an incentive to come and donate, just as the chocolate and drinks and the small goodies, that you get there. And you only can get the money, if you go to one of the fixed DRK locations. If the DRK comes to somewhere near you (as they often do with churches, town halls, schools and universities) you don’t get any money. I can at least believe, that these two are monetarily similar for the DRK. If you come to them, they don’t need to pay for getting the equipment and people to you. And providing incentives for donating blood is in effect a good thing, as they are working, thus we have more blood to save lifes.

Ofcourse actors later in the chain are probably profit oriented. Though there I would see the discussion disconnected from the donation. It is more about if we want profit oriented actors in healthcare.

And - as always - the US healthcare system seems to do the worst thing possible every time. Sorry, americans, don’t want to bash you, but capitalism…

frauddogg , (edited )
@frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml avatar

Anti. There will never be a day where they pay me enough to contribute to blood stocks for hateful amerikans.

BlueKey ,
@BlueKey@fedia.io avatar

If they see it as a scam then they seem to expect certain financial gain from donating.
In my opinion this is bad as donating life-saving goods should not be done just for the money.

You can't be scammed if you are doing it for saving lifes (except if they sell the blood to some shady labs instead hospitals).

sentient_loom ,
@sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works avatar

In order to answer this, I’d need to compare the efficacy of both the for-profit and the non-profit organizations. In some countries you don’t get paid, and I don’t know if that leads to blood shortages.

propter_hog ,
@propter_hog@hexbear.net avatar

I side with you. I’ve donated over a gallon of blood and blood products throughout the years. You’re helping someone. The reason they pay you is to incentivize coming and doing it. It’s painful for the donor, and it takes a while for your body to recover. The company doing so is (in my experience, anyway) a non-profit organization. They exist to help people. They do make money, but that’s because they have to pay their employees and donors, as you’ve mentioned.

skullgiver ,
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

I think paying for blood or other bodily fluids is bad. It provides incentive for desperate people (addicts etc.) to lie on the safety forms to keep getting paid.

I know a few people who donate blood despite not getting anything in return. I personally stopped donating plasma after a few times for health reasons (nothing dangerous in the plasma itself, luckily). To me, being able to help a hospital or a person by simply sitting back and watching shows on my tablet is probably the easiest, laziest charity you can support. The snacks are nice, too.

Not everyone can donate blood, but everyone who is able to, you should consider it, even if you won’t get paid for it. You can doom scroll and browse Lemmy like normal, except you’re sitting in a weird chair and get free food.

I suppose in the shittier countries, where all blood donation stuff is run for-profit, you should let them pay you if they’re making a profit off of you, but I still think it brings a bad incentive.

7bicycles ,

Considering you said you’re german, I think the whole Idea of “Ehrenamt” and subsidiaries of it runs counter to the entire system that has been built. If we monetize everything, I think it’s fine that people get paid for taking time out of their day and bodies to do good shit.

Basically, don’t do unpaid labour in this system?

intensely_human ,

If it’s an adult doing the selling, then it’s a consensual interaction.

Exploitation in the negative sense requires a violation of consent.

Xiisadaddy ,
@Xiisadaddy@lemmygrad.ml avatar

In general even if your donating the blood for free they will still charge the person who gets the blood thousands of dollars at least in the US. They might just bill it as the service of sticking the needle in and hanging the bag up for you or whatever, but in essence they do charge for the blood and make a profit off of it.

I do think its a good thing to donate and help people, but i also do think that companies take advantage of the situation to make a profit off of it, and it is definitely exploitation. Donating blood plasma specifically is not a fun process, and it can leave a permanent scar on your arm if done a lot. The pay for it compared to the problems, and the profits they make on it is definitely understandable to see as a scam.

Now is the answer to that to just let people who need blood die? Obviously no. The answer is the make laws that say companies must provide a fair market rate for peoples plasma if selling it, or ideally just make laws that make all healthcare free so its not an issue anymore.

Monstera , (edited )

If you get paid it ain’t a donation. It is trading human body parts

shapesandstuff ,

Getting a flat rate compensation of expense isn’t really selling though. I think thats a bit too polemical.

Aatube ,

So?

Monstera ,

Just stating a fact.

BoxedFenders ,
@BoxedFenders@hexbear.net avatar

Yeah, it’s technically illegal to sell blood and plasma but they get around this by paying you for your time instead. Gee, I wonder why this loophole doesn’t work for prostitution.

the_post_of_tom_joad ,
@the_post_of_tom_joad@hexbear.net avatar

I’m usually sitting or lying down.

pancake ,
@pancake@lemmygrad.ml avatar

Tissue, cell and organ donation (including blood, semen and oocytes) can and should be done strictly not-for-profit. This is how it’s done in Spain (well, you do get a snack when donating blood and a small amount of money for oocytes since the process is quite long) and there’s usually no shortage of blood components in hospitals. Local governments do a lot of campaigning, set up mobile units etc., which seems to work; people see all of that, think of it when planning their day, and many even go in small groups to donate.

HubertManne ,

Maybe it should be like other charitable donations and there should be a set tax deduction per ml or better yet how about they take enough for donation and decanter a portion out an do blood testing both to make sure the blood is clean but alsoso the individual is aware of they are free of X. You could get like a qr code you can use to identify the results later.

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