Is Plasma Donation Immoral?

  • Thread starter Thread starter khiveley
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
K

khiveley

Guest
I have tried to do my own research and find an objective answer as to whether it is immoral to go to a plasma donation center and receive money for blood plasma.

I understand the Catholic Churches teaching on the sanctity of human life. Article 5, paragraph 2260 indicates that “the covenant between God and mankind is interwoven with reminders of God’s gift to human life and man’s murderous violence: For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning…Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.” While this is specifically speaking of killing in regards to Cain and Abel, can it apply to this specific situation where a renewable part of the blood is going to be collected and a person is given money for the exchange?

Paragraphs 2292-2296 also discuss the need for scientific and medical research and for the need of the practices to respect the dignity of the human person. Is dignity in any way violated through a donation that is given with informed consent and minimal risks, but the donation is not selfless in nature?

Please help me to understand this issue more clearly. Thank you!
 
I would pray to the Holy Spirit and ask for guidance. If you felt the need to donate plasma, you could always refuse to accept the payment offered; however, usually folks are in a pretty tight financial situation when they resort to selling blood. If that is your situation, take a few steps back and see if perhaps another way can be found to raise the funds you need.

You might approach this by first doing some reflection on the Cardinal Virtues, specifically prudence and justice. I recently wrote in my blog about them or you can read more about them here.
 
Please forgive me if this is a stupid question, but are you saying that plasma and blood donation are a sin? Or only when one accepts money for such? If the issue is the money, what if you give it to charity? :confused:
 
Donating blood or plasma is a virtuous act.

What I’m not sure about (along with the OP) is whether selling blood is virtuous or not. Then again, I’m not sure that it’s sinful either. It might very well may be morally neutral.
 
The whole intent of my question was to know whether or not the Selling of blood or blood product to donation centers who offer it as a service is immoral. I agree with those who posted responses regarding it being virtuous in the fact that it is not loving or necessarily even charitable. Why would it be immoral to sell a kidney and moral to sell plasma?
 
Why would it be immoral? Would it be immoral to sell my hair?
 
It could be. It would depend on what the hair was going to be used to make. If the hair was being used to make something debtrimental to humanity. I have not done my research on the organization under consideration to know what the blood plasma is used to make or if they partner with any other organizations that will do so.
 
khiveley said:
Why would it be immoral to sell a kidney and moral to sell plasma?
Click to expand...
I am not an expert on Catholic teaching. I am just a mouthy person with a bit of spare time. 😉

That said, your body is constantly replenishing plasma - its like hair. A kidney, on the other hand, is irreplaceable.

I think the moral problem with a market in kidneys is that it exploits the poorest members of society.
 
Not to sure about selling blood, but what i heard from American friends and presuming this is what OP is talking about, the blood is usually for blood banks and will be used in hospitals yea?

If that’s the case, it’s a legit way of making money so why would it be a sin?

On the note regarding kidneys not being replacable, so would it be alright to sell liver? No offence, just wishing to heard more from Dale. I absolutely agree on the point that what’s the sin/problem is that the poorest are being exploited, even to the point where their lives are not even worth as much as the organs being harvested 😦
 
The Church on organ donation:
2296 Organ transplants are in conformity with the moral law if the physical and psychological dangers and risks to the donor are proportionate to the good sought for the recipient. Organ donation after death is a noble and meritorious act and is to be encouraged as a expression of generous solidarity. It is not morally acceptable if the donor or his proxy has not given explicit consent. Moreover, it is not morally admissible to bring about the disabling mutilation or death of a human being, even in order to delay the death of other persons.
Click to expand...
I think common sense says this applies to blood and plasma as well. Donating it would be meritorious, but taking money would not be wrong either.
 
The key word though that makes organ donation meritorious is that it is a donation. As indicated in the Catechism it also states that if the dignity or risks to the person donating are not proportionate, meaning that if their life is not treated as sacred or if there were severe risks of sickness and death, perhaps also that the kidney’s chance of success were very minimal then it would not be meritorious.

Can that be related to blood plasma too? For instance, if the risks of you donating will cause you to become sick and/or die?

In regards to the argument that blood is moral because it is donated to a blood bank that helps people scientifically, sperm and eggs are harvested also scientifically and held in cryogenic banks, much like blood plasma. From 2376-2377 of the CCC, we know that donation of either sperm or egg is gravely immoral because it denies the child of knowing his natural parents in 2376 and denies the natural creative act in 2377. Does anything similar apply here?

In no way am I trying to be legalistic. I want to know with absolute certainty prior to selling off a part of my body that what I am doing is objectively moral. Personal morality seems to have taken a stronghold in the world, and I don’t care what anyone individual believes to be right, but truly desire what is true.
 
JCismywingman said:
On the note regarding kidneys not being replacable, so would it be alright to sell liver? No offence, just wishing to heard more from Dale.
Click to expand...
No offense was taken, at least not by me. I had originally typed “market in organs”, then changed it to “market in kidneys” just to avoid confusion. But yes, I agree with you that the sale of any organs is an exploitation, and I think would be disrespectful of our inherent dignity as human beings.
 
So the poor person selling a kidney is immoral?

Or the exploiters are?

Assuming the poor person has made informed consent, how would it be a sin? Seems like a rational, yea virtuous, choice.

Perhaps it’s a rational market and works out to everyone’s benefit. Virginia Postrel argues this.

Donating blood, plasma, organs, or making an anatomical gift is a virtuous thing, whether or not compensation is received.

Have you signed up for your state’s organ donor registry and informed your health care power of attorney person and written it into your will? I have.
 
Plasma donation is not immoral, and can be a great act of charity, even if you receive money for it.
 
well, i guess exploiters are sinning when they exploit people regardless of what they are exploiting, so exploiting for organ harvesting is a sin, but if some one willingly donates their blood, plasma or organ, than that’s another story altogether… personally see nothing wrong, even if they sell blood/plasma, but i can understand why some people think it’s immoral cos it’s a slippery slope.

Just taking the case of liver, since it can be regenerated, if people were to start selling part of their liver this could become a very lucurative business and people in desperate need for the money may sell more than their body can handle which would than cause problems to their health etc etc… 🤷
 
I believe the passages quoted in the original post have nothing to do with plasma or blood donation as they refer specifically to the spilling of the blood of another person as in a homicide. A person has no right to spill the lifeblood in the sense of taking the life of another without justification (such as self-defense).

Giving or selling a renewable resource such as your own plasma is not remotely connected to the “spilling lifeblood” which is used as a substitute for saying “kill” in that context.

I think that following Catholic teaching, a person needs to be a good steward of the gift of their body including its renewable parts such as blood, but there is nothing inherently “immoral” in being paid for one’s plasma that I can find. It does not automatically cause harm to another person or to their soul or to your own soul for you to choose to share your plasma whether you get some payment or not.

The plasma centers in the US are not paying a donor anywhere near the amount of money that they will make for selling the plasma or blood/blood components to a hospital, so the donor is not being greedy by getting a small payment for their time/donation. The donor is not withholding the only blood that could save a person’s life while demanding payment before helping. In fact, a donor is giving something that no one has a right to demand from them whether or not a payment is received in exchange.

If a donor knew that they were donating to a place that gave its profits to support an abortion clinic or something of that nature, then one could attach a value judgment to the donation. If a person was sneaking from center to center to donate in excess of what the rules state is medically healthy, then one could argue that they were not being a good steward of their body. However, I don’t see that as being significantly more sinful than overeating or being a couch potato because both of those things can damage your body also.
 
jc-servant said:
I believe the passages quoted in the original post have nothing to do with plasma or blood donation as they refer specifically to the spilling of the blood of another person as in a homicide. A person has no right to spill the lifeblood in the sense of taking the life of another without justification (such as self-defense).

Giving or selling a renewable resource such as your own plasma is not remotely connected to the “spilling lifeblood” which is used as a substitute for saying “kill” in that context.

I think that following Catholic teaching, a person needs to be a good steward of the gift of their body including its renewable parts such as blood, but there is nothing inherently “immoral” in being paid for one’s plasma that I can find. It does not automatically cause harm to another person or to their soul or to your own soul for you to choose to share your plasma whether you get some payment or not.

The plasma centers in the US are not paying a donor anywhere near the amount of money that they will make for selling the plasma or blood/blood components to a hospital, so the donor is not being greedy by getting a small payment for their time/donation. The donor is not withholding the only blood that could save a person’s life while demanding payment before helping. In fact, a donor is giving something that no one has a right to demand from them whether or not a payment is received in exchange.

If a donor knew that they were donating to a place that gave its profits to support an abortion clinic or something of that nature, then one could attach a value judgment to the donation. If a person was sneaking from center to center to donate in excess of what the rules state is medically healthy, then one could argue that they were not being a good steward of their body. However, I don’t see that as being significantly more sinful than overeating or being a couch potato because both of those things can damage your body also.
Click to expand...
Hi, I searched for this issue on the forums because I was planning to donate plasma today and receiving payment. However, I’m very pro-life and the question rose in my mind

“How do I know the plasma won’t be used for something detrimental to humanity or human life?”

Are there plasma centers that use the plasma for bad things or who use their profits for bad things? The plasma center that I’m going to today is called “Biolife”. Thank you in advance for your response.
 
I would not think that it would be immoral. After all, a big Catholic Church in my area often hosts blood drives and there really isn’t much difference between donating blood and donating plasma. I would say that donating plasma is a virtuous act.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top