this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2024
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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

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[–] BlueKey@fedia.io 5 points 1 month ago

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).

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.

I'm usually sitting or lying down.

[–] pancake@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 month ago

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.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

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

Exploitation in the negative sense requires a violation of consent.

[–] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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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[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

How could selling something you naturally produce be a scam? I can see how easily you could get ripped off on the price, but in the end you're still making money and automatically replacing the plasma lost. Even if they're not actually using the plasma for their stated purpose, I'd still argue the donator is not the one getting scammed. I guess it really comes down to your definition of "scam".

[–] Hikermick@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I've donated blood and plasma and each time I've been offered rewards but don't bother claiming them. I do it to help others. My job pays me enough to live on.

[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I think it's fine to pay some for it.

I don't know how your healthcare system is structured. But let's assume there is a profit motive in getting you to donate blood. Let's also assume profit is a problem. So we want to reduce profits.

  1. If you get €25 per donation that is €25 less profit for them per donation.

  2. The demand for blood is going to stay the same. No one will decline a live saving surgery because it's a bit expensive and will pay anything to get it. Increasing supply will decrease profit margins.

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