Is Buying and Selling Plasma Ethical?

Is Buying and Selling Plasma Ethical?Top of Mind with Julie Rose • Season 1, Episode 994, Segment 5

Jan 28, 2019 • 17m

Guest: Brendan Leier, Clinical Ethicist at the University of Alberta and Stollery Children’s Hospitals & Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute. There are two plasma donation centers within walking distance of BYU’s campus. That’s not unusual: across the country, plasma donation is most popular with people who are cash-strapped, including college students. But donation isn’t really the right word, because donors get paid. America is the only country in the world where selling your blood is so widely accepted. A few provinces in Canada have started allowing it recently –which has reignited a long-running debate over the ethics and safety of selling plasma.

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