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Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 7:01amSanction this postReply
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Steven, I appreciated this article and sanctioned it.  I also respect your benevolence in your consistent efforts at blood donation.

I have read that blood banks do not pay for blood donations because it encourages donations from, well, "lower quality" people, e.g. street bums, etc. who have a higher risk for disease.  Given the screening of blood that happens already, I find this attitude a bit puzzling.  Perhaps you can comment.

Like you, I find the advertisement you criticize morally revolting.


Post 1

Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 8:27amSanction this postReply
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Blood banks already have a hard time getting the right donors anyway. Last November, I was disqualified because I apparently did not have enough iron in my blood.

Years ago, I received a letter saying that they would not accept my blood because of some protein level in my blood. I showed that letter to my doctor, and he told me not to worry about it.

And many times on hot days, donors will be disqualified simply because their temperatures are too high.

Keep in mind that the main organization in charge of blood donation is a giant, bloated bureaucracy--the Red Cross. First, they engage in the extremely questionable task of collecting the Social Security numbers of donors. I know a few people who refuse to donate just because of this.

And if you tried to do any volunteering after Katrina last year, you learned just how incompetent they are. I know many who were turned away. It happened to me twice.

It's really a shame because donating blood is so important. I'm O+ which is quite common. But that also means that there are more people who need it.


Post 2

Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 8:46amSanction this postReply
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I was denied because I had been to a high risk third world country (The Domincan Republic) within the past year (interestingly enough, they didn't mind that I had recently received a tattoo).

Post 3

Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 8:59amSanction this postReply
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Sanctioned!

I saw that ad a few days ago and thought it was horrible! 


Post 4

Thursday, July 27, 2006 - 1:11pmSanction this postReply
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In the office building that I work at, there is an add for a blood drive with a little girl on it. It says, "Every summer, blood reserves run low... Try telling that to a little girl with leukemia."

I, personally, would not have trouble saying such a thing, simply because it is true. I don't like the idea of being guilted into donating blood. "Guilt is a rope that wears thin."

Post 5

Friday, February 8, 2008 - 12:11pmSanction this postReply
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Steven, I appreciated this article and sanctioned it.  I also respect your benevolence in your consistent efforts at blood donation.

Ditto what Luke said above.  Good letter!


Post 6

Monday, February 11, 2008 - 9:35amSanction this postReply
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What is the reason that blood cannot be bought and sold like any other commodity?  Doesn't blood get purchased by hospitals?

Post 7

Monday, February 11, 2008 - 11:30amSanction this postReply
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What is the reason that blood cannot be bought and sold like any other commodity?  Doesn't blood get purchased by hospitals?
 
A lot of the laws prohibiting that are due to statist politicians who can't stand the notion of people turning a profit from a charitable enterprise, because they think donors should be forced to behave altruistically when people are suffering.  It's the same mindset that is driving the political push toward socialized medicine -- the attitude of "How dare doctors and nurses turn a buck off of suffering?  They should be altruistically treating people out of the goodness of their hearts!"


Post 8

Friday, April 3, 2009 - 6:26amSanction this postReply
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Hemopure, a blood substitute, has shown some promise but has risks both medically and politically.

I only know about this product because my graduate school team had to research it for a marketing paper last semester.

Post 9

Friday, April 3, 2009 - 6:57amSanction this postReply
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Oddly enough, a lot of places DO pay for plasma, presumably because it is a slightly more invasive procedure. So I guess the altruists, on some level, have drawn a mental dividing line between what is acceptable sacrifice, and what isn't. Kind of a moot point for me, as I've been pretty deep on the "Hell No!" list for at least a decade. Too much time out of the country and tattoos.


Post 10

Friday, April 3, 2009 - 7:32amSanction this postReply
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My eyes definitely aren't what they used to be. I read this thread title quickly, and half expected it to be about some Brit complaining about our 'bloody banks.'



Post 11

Friday, April 3, 2009 - 7:35amSanction this postReply
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Steven,

I can agree with your letter - the cartoon could have been better chosen. It is much akin to the cartoon of two old vultures sitting on a cactus, where the one turns to the other and says "Patience, my ass... I'm gonna go out and kill something."

However, I don't necessarily feel that yours is the only reasonable interpretation, and I do feel it is important (life in general) not to marry oneself to one opinion in an issue, when there are other reasonable opinions worth consideration.

Going back to the cartoon, which is still a poor choice, what they clearly want to convey is "We need your attention" and "This is something we feel is very important, such that we will take extraordinary lengths to get your immediate attention". Use of a humorous cartoon is the fastest and (normally) least offensive way to get a reader's attention. Their choice may have been a little off the mark, but the implications may well be more the ones you seek to see, than anything they intended to imply.

When a group devoted to such a cause is trying to effectively inspire greater general support, there may not be many PC wordings, so carefully constructed as to not offend someone's personal ideology. Steve and Jack found offense in two unrelated (except by subject) approaches.

I only think this is important to consider, because we see so many examples of where ideas are challenged not based upon their logic, but upon the ideological predisposition & determination of the challenger to make what may be a wholly unrelated point. In essence, this is what happens in the most ardent practicing of partisanship. Sometime, some people see "A", when other people just see "a", when in fact it is only "A".

Anyway, that's how I see it. But mine is still just another, hopefully useful, opinion.

jt








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Post 12

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 - 11:40amSanction this postReply
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I used to live on top of a blood bank in Boston, that purchased blood, in the late 70's. (23 Bay State Rd...) I think it's long gone. Price was right, I was a student.

Winos and druggies lined up in morning in foyer, waiting for blood bank to open up, and get their $10 and OJ and cookies or whatever. Generally urinated in the foyer, which had a distinct and constant 'eue de alky urine' and disinfectant odor.

Hey, the price was right, it was barely Back Bay, and it had a great view of downtown Boston and Cambridge. Couldn't smell the foyer on the third floor...

I hope I never need blood. If I do, I'm going to smell it first.



Post 13

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - 8:41amSanction this postReply
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Later in life, I used to selfishly donate blood 'for free.'

Selfishly, because it was a convenient way to get my blood checked for cholesterol levels, and I also physically used to just 'feel' better after dropping the odd pint. I didn't examine why, I just did.

I was rejected for a while after doing business in Bangladesh, and I understand why. (Imagine living there, if just visiting there renders your blood a risk. And, I had all my shots. Lots of places in the world like that, but not here. There especially. Partition plunked them down right at the exit of India's sewage disposal system, the Ganges. It's awful, and by awful, I mean, full of offal. The water everywhere is filthy, loaded with bloated animal carcasses and God knows what...)

And, I can't explain it, but I missed the occasional opportunity to give blood. The occasional regeneration of blood supply exercised something inside of me I can't fully explain, I just physically felt better when I was regularly donating blood. It was painless and convenient and they checked my cholesterol level. For the 'cost' involved, which was minimal, it was acceptable value for value.

Donating blood is one of those low cost win-win things. It's barely more altruistic than simply letting some stranger into traffic, or holding the door open for someone else. The selfish reasons for doing any of that are easy to understand; if you want to live in a civil world, then you need to help make it a civil world, period. There are ample opportunities for purely voluntary acts of selfish civility in the world.

For example, if you want to live in a world where the blood supply is garnered from the kind of folks who volunteer to give blood, the folks you regularly see at blood banks, then you selfishly support that idea, by giving blood.

If you want to live in a world where decent folks pass on the opportunity to line up with piss laden alcoholics and addicts waiting to get paid their $10 for their pint of blood, then you support the idea of blood for money blood banks. A variant of Gresham's law also applies to the paid blood bank donor market; those with pissed pants waiting in line tend to displace those without pissed pants. "If that is what donating blood is, then that is not me."

If you're nuts, you support the idea of forced blood giving. Obviously, that idea is repulsive, unless we substitute 'money' for 'blood.' Then, plenty of folks support the idea of forced giving, even as they fail to make the moral connection between 'life' and 'needs.'

The market is yet another place where OneSizeDoesNotFitAll. There are some concepts that just don't belong in the market, and some that do. Or, in my way of thinking of it, blood donors are participating in a value for value marketplace, but the medium of exchange is not currency.

In this world, as it is, our blood supply does not belong in the 'for dollars' marketplace. Ditto organs. The paid variants of those markets are fundamentally flawed, and the 'forced' variants of those would be tyranny. That leaves the fully voluntary world. If that means 'shortages', then that means shortages. That's life, in the universe, as it is.


(Edited by Fred Bartlett on 4/15, 8:43am)

(Edited by Fred Bartlett on 4/15, 8:44am)


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Post 14

Friday, April 2, 2010 - 5:00pmSanction this postReply
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This is such a load of shit. This Druckenmiller cat needs to get a life. It's a silly ad made to get people laughing and then giving blood. It is, however, no surprise that you don't get that.

It's also no surprise that people you associate with would not get it either.

Give blood, be happy, shut up. Save your moral speeches for your unfunny and probably very pale and blood drained friends.

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Post 15

Friday, April 2, 2010 - 6:08pmSanction this postReply
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I don't laugh at nihilism. It isn't funny.

Here's another unfunny nihilistic "joke," called "Easter Cancelled."




Post 16

Friday, April 2, 2010 - 6:20pmSanction this postReply
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Steve,

Why do feel the need to be so rude? I found nothing of value in your post.

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Post 17

Sunday, April 4, 2010 - 8:39pmSanction this postReply
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Steve, why do you feel the need to point out the obvious? Is it so people you don't know can applaud you?

First of all, I don't write things to be of value to you or anyone else. I really don't give a damn.

Second, this Druckenmiller guy is a dope. His very first point is an attempt to convince us all of his moral superiority. Why, he's so high minded he can't laugh. This may be true, the laughing part, though for reasons he would hate for anyone else to recognize. I do though, and damn is that funny.

Third, humor is so dang close to crossing the line that it's often mistaken for rudeness. For those with no sense of it almost anything can become offensive to them. However, those with even the slightest sense of humor can see, upon closer inspection, that what might be rude is also rather funny or at the very least not worth commenting on. It's very much like the men who post on websites and constantly wish to display their sense of proper decorum and grace. They wish to confuse decorum and good manners with original thinking and creative ideas. Usually, upon close inspection, these men have neither.

Post 18

Sunday, April 4, 2010 - 9:52pmSanction this postReply
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Steve,

You asked, "...why do you feel the need to point out the obvious?"

Not to point out that you were being rude. That is obvious. It was in hope of diminishing the amount of rudeness on RoR.

Post 19

Sunday, April 4, 2010 - 10:11pmSanction this postReply
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Give me a break.

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