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The man with the golden blood

mosaicscience.com

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Re: The man with the golden blood

#21

Post by function_seven »

masklinn wrote: post #19
post_break wrote: post #15

Anyone else find it odd that he can't donate spare blood for himself? It seems unfair.

The article specifically mentions that he can and has since he turned 18: > When he turned 18, Thomas was encouraged to donate blood for himself. There is now no frozen blood bank in Switzerland, so his blood is stored in the rare blood banks in Paris and Amsterdam. And that his approval is required for doctors to draw into his "personal stash": > Since his blood can be given to anyone with a negative Rh blood type,…

> If he donates a unit for himself, he has to permit it to be used by anyone else who might need it.

That sentence could have been worded better. This is the way I read it:

    If he donates a unit for himself, he must allow it
    to be used by anyone else who might need it.

Re: The man with the golden blood

#22

Post by MrJagil »

What an amazing reading experience. So rarely do you see an article with so few distractions.

I wish I had something substantial to add, but I was just in awe by the presentation, the clear-cut contact information and credentials laid out, the pleasant font choices and how the related stories weren't pushed on you as opportunities for ad-rev, but for enlightenment for the curious.

Re: The man with the golden blood

#23

Post by ceejayoz »

function_seven wrote: post #21
masklinn wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article specifically mentions that he can and has since he turned 18: > When he turned 18, Thomas was encouraged to donate blood for himself. There is now no frozen blood bank in Switzerland, so his blood is stored in the rare blood banks in Paris and Amsterdam. And that his approval is required for doctors to draw into his "personal stash": > Since his blood can be given to anyone with a negative Rh blood type,…

> If he donates a unit for himself, he has to permit it to be used by anyone else who might need it. That sentence could have been worded better. This is the way I read it: If he donates a unit for himself, he must allow it to be used by anyone else who might need it.

I read it as him having a separate personal bank of blood units, that are reserved for his use unless he gives them permission to take from it.

Re: The man with the golden blood

#24

Post by davegardner »

TheBeardKing wrote: post #12
sosuke wrote: post #7

Really interesting situation, and very frustrating that none of the rare blood donors costs can be paid for by hospitals. Seems like there should be some loop hole to get them compensated.

I would think they could just screen frequent donors with rare blood types for infections. Once the donor is known safe, compensate however is needed to get their blood. I believe there are private industries doing this. This one will be opening soon in my town, though I guess just for plasma: http://www.biolifeplasma.com/become-donor/compensation.html

I'm a regular whole blood and plasma donor and I'm quite sure that I'd be much less likely to donate if I was being paid for it. I'm not really sure exactly why I feel that way, but I guess that if you put a dollar value on it I'd be calculating whether it really was worth my time. Right now, because there is no compensation (aside from a muffin and a cup of tea afterwards), I get the emotional benefits of having performed a purely altruistic deed.

Re: The man with the golden blood

#25

Post by elemeno »

MrJagil wrote: post #22

What an amazing reading experience. So rarely do you see an article with so few distractions. I wish I had something substantial to add, but I was just in awe by the presentation, the clear-cut contact information and credentials laid out, the pleasant font choices and how the related stories weren't pushed on you as opportunities for ad-rev, but for enlightenment for the curious.

The site is part of the Wellcome Trust, a large UK charity that's focused on improving human and animal health. They're one of largest sources of funding for medical research in the world, second only to the Gates Foundation according to Wikipedia. They're also a bit supporter of open access science journals.

If you're in London, they also have the Wellcome Collection - a medical focused museum that describes itself as "The free destination for the incurably curious". Pretty much always fascinating and worth a visit!

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/ http://www.wellcomecollection.org/

Re: The man with the golden blood

#26

Post by IvyMike »

Most people who donate blood just go into a pool, but 'directed' blood donations are very interesting.

I found out about directed donation when someone I know was found to be a close match for a baby with Diamond Blackfan anemia. He was asked if he would do directed blood donations to that baby on a regular basis. It was a serious commitment; missing a donation would put the child's life in danger. There were additional sacrifices--he couldn't travel a lot of places (for example, countries with malaria) as that would disqualify his blood.

The happy conclusion is that after five years, the parents had another child who was a perfect match for bone marrow, and after a marrow transfusion the Diamond Blackfan anemia was cured.

Re: The man with the golden blood

#27

Post by niels_olson »

csdrane wrote: post #11
sosuke wrote: post #7

Really interesting situation, and very frustrating that none of the rare blood donors costs can be paid for by hospitals. Seems like there should be some loop hole to get them compensated.

I would have guessed that the reason for prohibiting payment for blood would be the same as the reason prohibiting payment for organ donations. Interesting that in this case it is blamed on trying to minimize donations from people with HIV.

It's not just HIV. It's any infectious disease (there is a thick book of reasons to disallow a donation). The problem is that these infectious diseases are socially disruptive, therefore these folk, unfortunately, tend to have less marginal income. Therefore, they are exactly the people who would respond to a small monetary incentive. This has been studied. If anyone is acutely aware of the problem, it's blood banks. So this issue is revisited routinely. Here is a recent review on the topic:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2847338/

Re: The man with the golden blood

#28

Post by DavidAdams »

davegardner wrote: post #24
TheBeardKing wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think they could just screen frequent donors with rare blood types for infections. Once the donor is known safe, compensate however is needed to get their blood. I believe there are private industries doing this. This one will be opening soon in my town, though I guess just for plasma: http://www.biolifeplasma.com/become-donor/compensation.html

I'm a regular whole blood and plasma donor and I'm quite sure that I'd be much less likely to donate if I was being paid for it. I'm not really sure exactly why I feel that way, but I guess that if you put a dollar value on it I'd be calculating whether it really was worth my time. Right now, because there is no compensation (aside from a muffin and a cup of tea afterwards), I get the emotional benefits of having per…

You're not alone. I listened to a podcast a while back on this subject, and the reason that the blood "market" runs solely and strictly on donations it's because earlier in history, when the medical establishment paid for blood, they were only able to get skid row types to contribute, and needless to say, the quality of the blood wasn't good.

http://freakonomics.com/2013/06/05/is-paying-for-blood-a-goo...

Re: The man with the golden blood

#29

Post by Osmium »

davegardner wrote: post #24
TheBeardKing wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think they could just screen frequent donors with rare blood types for infections. Once the donor is known safe, compensate however is needed to get their blood. I believe there are private industries doing this. This one will be opening soon in my town, though I guess just for plasma: http://www.biolifeplasma.com/become-donor/compensation.html

I'm a regular whole blood and plasma donor and I'm quite sure that I'd be much less likely to donate if I was being paid for it. I'm not really sure exactly why I feel that way, but I guess that if you put a dollar value on it I'd be calculating whether it really was worth my time. Right now, because there is no compensation (aside from a muffin and a cup of tea afterwards), I get the emotional benefits of having per…

Two other possibilities:

* In the private health-care world, if you're getting paid, you might feel like someone else is profiting off your blood (how else could they pay you?)

or

* In the public health-care world, if you're getting paid you might feel like money is being ill-spent when it could/should be used to better pay healthcare workers etc. since people are typically willing to donate blood for free.

Re: The man with the golden blood

#30

Post by niels_olson »

gwern wrote: post #14
sosuke wrote: post #7

Really interesting situation, and very frustrating that none of the rare blood donors costs can be paid for by hospitals. Seems like there should be some loop hole to get them compensated.

That's modern medical 'ethics' for you: damn the consequences, what matters is what it looks like and whether it offends anyone.

No, it's about the safety of the blood supply. It's a weird quirk of human psychology and economics that paying for donations means fewer healthy people and more people with infectious diseases donate when it's fee-for-blood.
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