Call it ‘blood money’ if you want, but paid plasma donations have arrived in one province…
With an ever increasing demand for medical treatments, Canada has been increasingly turning to the USA for blood. According to statistics, around 80 per cent of the blood plasma used in Canada comes from America where pay-for-donation clinics are well-established.
So is time to bring the same approach here?
A recent report in the Financial Post has shown how health officials appear divided on the issue. Some see it as a way of ramping up supplies for desperately needed procedures; while others question the ethics of paying people for bodily fluids and have called into question the safety of using private companies that are looking to make a profit.
Now, after Canadian Plasma Resources stopped doing business in Ontario back in 2014, the company has arrived in Saskatoon with a new clinic. There were concerns in Toronto about the location of the clinics – with some fears that they were being set-up in areas with strong homeless populations.
Speaking to the publication, Health Canada’s director general of biologies and genetic therapies Dr Robert Cushman outlined how there is a concern that some may move away from voluntary blood donations. However, he believes that paid plasma clinics would not be a threat commenting that it “requires a much bigger ongoing commitment to donate plasma for drugs than it does to donate plasma for transfusion.”
Also speaking to the Financial Post, Dr Graham Sher of Canadian Blood Services commented that he supports the introduction of compensation for donors, commenting that today they send only around 260,000 litres of plasma… whereas as around 800,000-900,000 is needed.
However, on the flipside, Dr Michele Brill-Edwards, who is a board member at the Canadian Health Coalition, commented that there is a risk people will not be honest when they are motivated primarily by money and there is a chance “we will get people who are not as healthy as possible donating.”
What do you make of the paid-for donation issue? Should people receive money for making donations to get more people interested or does this carry too many risks? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.
So is time to bring the same approach here?
A recent report in the Financial Post has shown how health officials appear divided on the issue. Some see it as a way of ramping up supplies for desperately needed procedures; while others question the ethics of paying people for bodily fluids and have called into question the safety of using private companies that are looking to make a profit.
Now, after Canadian Plasma Resources stopped doing business in Ontario back in 2014, the company has arrived in Saskatoon with a new clinic. There were concerns in Toronto about the location of the clinics – with some fears that they were being set-up in areas with strong homeless populations.
Speaking to the publication, Health Canada’s director general of biologies and genetic therapies Dr Robert Cushman outlined how there is a concern that some may move away from voluntary blood donations. However, he believes that paid plasma clinics would not be a threat commenting that it “requires a much bigger ongoing commitment to donate plasma for drugs than it does to donate plasma for transfusion.”
Also speaking to the Financial Post, Dr Graham Sher of Canadian Blood Services commented that he supports the introduction of compensation for donors, commenting that today they send only around 260,000 litres of plasma… whereas as around 800,000-900,000 is needed.
However, on the flipside, Dr Michele Brill-Edwards, who is a board member at the Canadian Health Coalition, commented that there is a risk people will not be honest when they are motivated primarily by money and there is a chance “we will get people who are not as healthy as possible donating.”
What do you make of the paid-for donation issue? Should people receive money for making donations to get more people interested or does this carry too many risks? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.
