August 22, 2004

  • I've been reading about the need for blood bank donations, given the FL hurricane destruction and a general low level of available blood in banks.

    This got me thinking about making a donation or two, which in turn got me thinking about selling a donation or two. I realize the two aren't the same thing... Blood you sell goes to research and ultimately pads some corporate bottom line somewhere, while blood donated to the Red Cross or whoever ends up being used in medial procedures. But I figure, why not do a little of both? I've got plenty of marrow, right?

    Anyway.

    So I've been looking around on the web for discussions about selling blood plasma. My first google search and generally random link led me to this paper, which is a total hoot. It's on a web site called sociology.org, which has a staid and conservative mission statement, but the article itself says things like this:

    I was in what appeared to be a typical examining room in a doctor’s office. There was a desk with pamphlets and advertisements and an examining bed. On the wall was a poster that showed a living, smiling middle-aged Caucasian couple standing in the front yard of a single family home with their hands on a boy in a baseball uniform. They were all happy and smiling and living because of plasma. The caption: A PLASMA DONOR SAVED OUR GRANDSON’S LIFE. Implicit: DONATE TODAY, MIDDLE-CLASS WHITE PEOPLE WILL BENEFIT FROM IT. Implicit: HOMELESS? POOR? DESTITUTE? DEAD? AT LEAST YOUR PLASMA WON’T BE! THAT’S RIGHT, IF YOU’VE SOLD YOURSELF YOU CAN TAKE COMFORT IN KNOWING THAT YOUR PLASMA WILL HELP ONLY THE BEST FAMILIES IN AMERICA. YOU MIGHT BE DEAD, BUT YOUR PLASMA LIVES ON!!!

    The rest goes on in a bizarre, William S. Burroughs kind of vein (pardon the pun), where "donator/seller/victim/hosts" are attacked by giant mosquito machines and so forth.

    To my left lies the corpse of what was once an elderly white man. He was close enough to me that I could see the bruises on his exposed arm.

    Narcissus- How are you today?

    Prometheus-[Bound] If I was doing okay, do you think I’d be here?

    Let's hear it for academia!

Comments (4)

  • You should try selling plasma, just for the experience. It's surreal.

    There was a 60 Minutes expose about how plasma collected here is marketed in Europe, causing shortages for US hemophiliacs.

    Also, you get free VD/HIV testing!

  • By the way, I was watching the same Chaco documentary. That's a funny coincidence. It hooked me right in.

    ~StarGzr

  • I went to go donate blood and I don't have enough iron or something so they wouldn't take it- ask me how I fealt about that rejection! I am so jealous that you cand donate blood!

  • I need all my blood. I've worked too hard producing the good stuff to sell it.

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