Re:A kidney donor at 18 now regrets it
by BurningFrog on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @01:00AM
(#12633435)
The blood market is very different from the kidney market, and simply translating conclusions from one to the other is very dubious.
Blood donations produce the needed amount of blood, and that system basically works. So it makes sense to not take any risks to expand the already sufficient supply.
Meanwhile the kidney transplant world is desperately tragic. About a dozen Americans die each day from lack of a kidney. Even if an added kidney supply would be lower quality on the margin, it would save a huge amount of lives.
Re:A kidney donor at 18 now regrets it
by JamesBarney on Monday October 03, 2016 @07:18PM
(#12632177)
The biggest difference between blood and organs is scale. Organs are sold for largest sums of money which means that there is much more money and time available to do full medical work ups and tests to verify the quality of the organs.
Re:A kidney donor at 18 now regrets it
by colechristensen on Monday October 03, 2016 @07:32PM
(#12632250)
As well as a significantly stronger motivation to deceive in order to secure the payout. Assuming that verification procedures against a hostile donor can maintain quality vastly overestimates the tests.
The deception is made more difficult via the significant match screening required. When I donate blood, they ask me a series of questions. I can answer as truthfully as I like. How much testing they do to the whole or processed blood likely differs widely from facility to facility.
Before donating a kidney, I went through half a dozen invasive, detailed medical exams that didn't depend on my given answers at all.
5. The quality of organs goes down.
It's been extensively studied for paying for blood donations, and the consensus is widely to discourage the practice.
https://www.statnews.com/2016/01/22/paid-plasma-not-blood/
http://www.radiolab.org/story/308403-blood/