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

  • Firestorm DruidOP
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    2 months ago

    Holy shit, 120$ per week? Now I definitely feel like I’m being ripped off 🐧 I thought we were having it good with 25€ per donation plus the odd additional promotions.

    It used to be like that for me too - extra money to spend on leisure time. Mostly video games, in my case. Nowadays, I can’t go that regularly, sadly, because my new apprenticeship is full-time and doesn’t leave too much time to go donate plasma. But 120 sounds amazing

    • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Back when I was in college (early 80s) we got $10 a pop. The Arby’s next door would cash the checks if you bought something.