Rants and ramblings about some subjects which annoy or intrigue me.
I may be totally ignorant of the subject matter, but damn
do I have an opinion!
Blood Donation
Do you donate blood? Does it make you feel good to be helping people?
Wonderful! You are providing, for free, a vital part of you
which will be sold for up to hundreds of dollars per pint to the recipient.
It's OK for hospitals to
make money off your donated lifeblood, but
it is evil for you to want any recompense for it. Don't
believe me? Do a Google search for
"paid blood donors" and see what various agencies have to say about it.
In a nutshell: paying for blood donations attracts donations from the
worst part of society, those in high-risk categories for hepatitis and
HIV. Thus, by implication: if you want money for your blood, you are
probably a junkie or a slut.
Oh, you say predicate logic does not support that conclusion?
I guess you don't live in the same world as the blood brokers do; the
connotation in their webpages is palpable. They obviously do not want
to have to pay for this resource and are successfully brainwashing the
public that it is the best way. People with few needs, who could meet
all their expenses by getting paid a reasonable amount for a pint of
their blood (let's say $100), simply do not have the option, or if they
do I have not been able to find out about it. I did, however,
find Nabi Biomedical Centers, which
currently pays you $20 "for your time" each time you donate plasma.
Think about it. Even the word "donate", which other than "give" is the
only word I have ever used in the context of allowing another person to
take your blood, admits no question of payment. "Can I get paid when I
donate blood?" "How ridiculous, of course not! It's a donation, isn't it?"
There must be a better word to use, maybe "release" or "relinquish".
Other suggestions are of course welcome. "If I were to relinquish a pint
of blood, how much recompense would I receive?" I'll have to try it out
someday on the blood brokers. Their minions will probably feign
deafness.
The current date is Sunday, 22-Nov-2009 21:42:06 UTC
This page was last modified Tuesday, 25-Mar-2003 04:52:29 UTC
Author
jcomeau@risp.org, otherwise known as:
John Comeau
P. O. Box 100632
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33310-0632
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