Donors of bone marrow can now be paid

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/02/us-donors-bone-marrow-idUSTRE7B11FR20111202

by jphackworth • 15 years ago

55 35 15 years ago

This is interesting timing because of the Amit Gupta social media attempt to get a donor. Now, Amit is allowed to offer money for the bone marrow.

avree• 15 years ago

It's too late now, unfortunately.

http://amitguptaneedsyou.com/

tapp• 15 years ago

I'm not sure it is. To the best of my knowledge, Amit hasn't found a donor yet - they've just found several possible matches.

If so, then the next challenge will be getting one of those matches to donate. Per article on HN yesterday, "more than 50 percent of South Asians in the registry refuse to go through with the donation process if selected" (Source: http://www.good.is/post/amit-gupta-and-the-south-asian-bone-... )

If payment improves that ratio, then I would think this could still potentially help Amit.

MichaelApproved• 15 years ago

What was the clock counting down to?

skylan_q• 15 years ago

Oh no! Now there will be bone marrow thieves! </sarcasm>

jlcx• 15 years ago

If people own their organs, then why can't they sell them? In any case, this seems to be a step in the right direction.

abstractbill• 15 years ago

You own yourself, but cannot sell yourself into slavery, for very good reasons.

extension6• 15 years ago

No, but you can sell your posessions, your labor, your ideas, your likeness, and numerous other rights and privileges. Why the arbitrary comparison between organs and slavery?

mynameishere• 15 years ago

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-01/organ-gangs-force-p...

staunch• 15 years ago

And in some countries people are constantly being kidnapped and held for ransom. We don't have that problem in the US and we probably wouldn't have a big organ gang problem either.

ck2• 15 years ago

There is a massive profit made along the chain from selling donated blood in the USA to hospitals and patients - we're talking billion of dollars (the Red Cross is very guilty, so is Baxter and other corporations).

The plasma payment model works just fine, I say try it for other things that are renewable.

carbocation2• 15 years ago

In a recent thread I argued that renewable is not a sufficient criterion (and perhaps not necessary, either). Risk to the donor is much more important. Money in medicine is coercive, but if you are coercing someone into doing something nearly never harmful (blood or sperm donation), it's not a problem. If you're coercing them into doing something with high risk, even if the tissue is renewable, then I believe we have a problem (liver donation).

Modern marrow collection techniques generally put the donor at low risk, and marrow is renewable, so it appears to be a clear win.

daeken• 15 years ago

Risk matters, but the only impact is has on anything is on price. If something has a 0.1% chance of killing me, I'll expect far, far less money for it than something with a 5% chance of killing me. I might still do it, but the payoff has to be proportional to the risk I'm taking. I ride in cars knowing that I'm taking a risk, but I do it because I want the value that riding in a car gives me.

mhb• 15 years ago

Decision: http://www.ij.org/images/pdf_folder/economic_liberty/NOTA/no....

gkoberger• 15 years ago

I probably just don't fully understand the situation, however this seems bad. I'm usually for capitalism and the concept of supply and demand, but not in this case.

What's my marrow worth to me? Probably not much; a bit of time and discomfort but overall not a huge deal. However, for the buyer, it's the matter of life or death. Seems like it would be easy to extort someone who needs it.

This is one of the rare cases where I hope the market is very heavily regulated -- say, "Bone marrow is worth $1k. It's illegal to ask for more."

pg_bot• 15 years ago

Having price ceilings would cause shortages in supply which would possibly lead to more deaths than cost increases. By meddling in the marketplace you are bound to create a lot of unintended consequences that will be detrimental to patients.

gujk2• 15 years ago

Death is not the only measure of quality of life. ER docs are not empowered to negotiate fees with their patients in the moments before service either.

eli• 15 years ago

Right now the problem is supply. The problem is not people being unable to pay $x more for the treatment.

Donors of bone marrow can now be paid

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