Is the patient experience significantly different from that of giving blood? Does later processing or the intended purpose of what has been collected matter?

Sorry you are having to consider this porkchop!

My husband used to do both whole blood and plasma donations. The former is pretty quick, but you can only do it every so often, as it takes a while for your body to replace the red blood cells. Plasma donation takes a lot longer, since they separate it out and return the non-plasma components, but you can do it more frequently.

I think I could donate every 3 or 4 days. I made enough each week to buy groceries. I remember it taking roughly an hour or so.

And double red I can do less frequently than whole, but for some reason they prefer it. Like with plasma and platelets, they take what they need and put back the rest.

i’m sorry some feel the need to be judgy here. There are many things that some do for money and others volunteer for. Right off the top of my head campaign canvassers, fire fighters, tax preparers, counselors, and instructors of various sorts come to mind. I’m sure there are plenty more.

I am not aware of this and will google it.

Porkchop, hopefully someone who has actual experience will see this post.

Sorry if you think I was being judgy. It’s something I haven’t heard of before and I was trying to understand it.

"Sorry you are having to consider this porkchop"

It's not for bad circumstances, just want to make some money to pay for a non-necessity.

I too had to think about where / how someone would donate blood for $$. It never occurred to me that it was done anymore. My DH is a long time Red Cross blood donor. He is O negative & he used to donate whole blood to the baby bank. For some years now he only donates double reds & as frequently as allowed. It takes a couple hours. That O negative is a treasure to blood banks. I’ve never donated - can’t meet the minimum allowable weight.

I haven't donated plasma but have often donated platelets, so have some experience in the chair and education by virtue of being a witness. (Each platelet donation takes me 2-2.5 hours.) Donating plasma is pretty quick - about the same as blood donation, less than an hour - and doesn't make you as tired as donating blood can. I don't know how much you can make but given how little time it takes, I think it could be worth it. Let us know what you find out!

“It takes a couple hours.”

🤔 You might wanna put a tracker on him.

😉

" I too had to think about where / how someone would donate blood for $$ "

Thank you for sharing your reaction, one that was similar to mine. I've always thought of donating blood as an unselfish deed done to help others, just like charitable contributions of value (not simply to dispose of old clothes or junk).

My mom used to regularly give blood. She had probably the most sought after type.

DH used to donate when his (one particular) workplace would organize a blood donation day. Do any workplaces do this nowadays? Sounds like a great idea. I think DH stopped donating after he changed employers and when he went someplace on his own, I think I recall him telling me that he found some of the screening questions odd.

I have a quasi rarish/uncommon blood type (I just fealized), but have never donated. Perhaps I should as my recent bloodwork showed all good/okay.

But I get queasy about the large gauge needle. (It has to be a large bore so that the red blood cells don’t get damaged.) I have drawn blood from people, but for myself, am squeamish about needles in my veins.

The Red Cross charges 💲for blood🩸

Here is an interesting link:

🩸 https://stanfordbloodcenter.org/donate-blood/blood-donation-facts/blood-types/

PS I seem to recall decades ago, someone passing out and crashing a car after giving a blood donation. I’m pretty sure that the donation sites have people wait around for 15 or 20 minutes, maybe have a snack.

Here is something I read a few days ago:

How Plasma Donations Help Pay The Bills and Treat Patients

🩸 https://apple.news/AZp_lG6j6Tau9V8W3A78u-w

After reading about plasma donating, I think I’d tell them to keep the change — keep the whole pint. I don’t want anything cycled back into me after filtering for the plasma.

I wouldn’t want to risk getting an infection, however unlikely.

I think that plasma centers are usually in areas where people are looking for extra cash, ie, college campuses. I knew people in the past that did it. The filtration systems for the double reds or plasma are all one time use contained systems so there is no way for any cross contamination.

Plasma donation fills a need, so why judge?

"... plasma donation involves collecting just one component of whole blood and returning the other three to the donor. Plasma is used to create different therapies to help replace missing, deficient, or malfunctioning proteins in individuals with serious, often life-threatening diseases, such as hemophilia and primary immunodeficiency"

https://www.plasmahero.org/news/whats-difference-between-blood-and-plasma-donation

Whole blood fills a different need than plasma. Plasma is a specialty therapy. Consider it like medication. One can also get paid for whole blood, but those are also specialty banks. Some of you are comparing apples to oranges. These products aren't used in the same way, so why not compensate someone who goes over and above? Of course, you can donate. Why not donate your entire savings, when you have a home and enough for food, medications, and transportation? Most of us don't. Money is a very personal thing, so yes, you're being judgemental about something personal to someone else. For the record, I only donate.

What about hospitals? While usually categorized as non-profit, aren’t they essentially acting as a for profit enterprise — blurring the line? (“…blur[ring] the normal societal views of what each act would normally imply about the motivation of the …”)

" Plasma donation fills a need, so why judge? "

A food bank facing Thanksgiving shortages launches a drive offering NBA game tickets in exchange for donated shelf-stable food, one ticket for every X pounds of food. Are participants who receive tickets truly “donors”? Should they claim to support the food bank? I suspect many people would (often without mentioning what they got in return).

While there’s nothing wrong with the plasma program or my hypothetical example, both seem to blur typical ethical and moral assumptions about donor motivation. Not that it matters, but this ambiguity mirrors tax law, which limits charitable deductions to the amount paid to the charity minus the fair market value of any benefit received. I think it's an implementation of the moral quandary I just described.

It's a rule that historically many ignored. Consider this common situation- a charity holds an auction of items it has obtained by soliciting donations for such purpose. Person A pays $75 for a fine bottle of wine worth $100. Person B gets a 3 day stay in someone's condo at a ski resort for $900. The normal price would have been $2,000. Both have checks (or other proof of payment) for the amounts paid to the charity and without a doubt deduct such amounts. In fact, neither is entitled to a penny of a deduction.

In case anyone is interested - for donating blood without compensation, there's no deduction.

Sperm donors get paid for donating.

So do surrogate mothers. Substantially more. Is this something for which you should fight for gender equality?

I think that plasma centers are usually in areas where people are looking for extra cash, ie, college campuses.

Not where I live! There are several centers in my suburban area, and they are filled with adults of all ages.

Plasma donation fills a need, so why judge? Totally agree!

It just occurred to me that my failure to crystalize my thinking to choose the right words caused some distraction. I think I have it now.

When something is given to help someone, when receiving nothing in return, that's a donation.

When giving something to someone for compensation, that's a sale.

It's the word usage that threw me off. Donating blood or plasma means it's given for free.

Providing it in return for money is selling it. So what this has been about is selling plasma, not donating it. Maybe the "donating" term is an intentional euphemism to cast it in a different light.

That works for me if not for others. Again, it's fine to do and even better to talk about when using the right word.

Good point Elmer. This thread has given me much to think about. It’s all about perspective. If the title had been ”Has anyone sold plasma?” I, for one, would have approached the question from a different angle. @porkchop_z5b_MI - thanks for approaching TKT with your question and giving us a serious topic to sink our teeth into. My answer to you now, is that I can’t contribute anything to your question of whether it’s worth it because I’ve never been able to donate - that minimum weight thing. But, I will say that I know there’s a need for plasma & if it pays enough to be worth it to you, why not?

It may be that in the case of medical usage, terms donor and donation refer to the source and sourcing of things, not the monetary arrangement or lack thereof.

https://www.cryosinternational.com/en-us/us-donor/donate-sperm/why-donate/sperm-donor-pay-and-compensation/

foas, your point is also taken. Maybe this is purely an issue of clarity. On the medical / product use side, the meaning of the word donation is crystal clear. On the ’donor’ giving side the meaning of donation is more murky. Speaking for myself, I took the term donation at face value when I should not have. Granted, the process of the transaction being considered, not ’donated’ but giving it in exchange for a monetary compensation, was explained in the sub text under the headline. My focus was on the headline & that’s the direction the thread took. For me, I’ll chalk this one up to the challenges we all have of clear communication with a diverse and unknown audience.

Just as a matter of interest neither sperm donors nor surrogate mother's are paid here either, although they can claim expenses such as travel.

This wasn't a conversation among people engaged in providing medical or related services. I'm familiar with the use of the word donor by those involved with what's been mentioned but I think it's a misnomer or at least less than clear to use it when asking fellow civilians in a conversation whether that's something they would do.

I'm not criticizing porkchop at all for her wording or her intended action. Not at all. Just saying that the heading threw me off. Maybe not too many others.

The same thing happens sometimes when a gulf is crossed when a civilian asks a question of a technical expert and the expert responds using terms the asker doesn't know or understand the use of in that context. It can cause misunderstanding or confusion. Compare

Have you ever sold blood? with

Have you ever donated blood?

Do they mean the same to you? Not to me.

Sorry for the misdirection.

@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK I didn’t know that! My comment about that difference in practice is that many countries are more enlighted than mine and don’t monetize everything possible.

I think perhaps because we have a long history of blood donation at blood donation centers; then people probably also donated plasma. Maybe becauseof high demand and low supply that changed and people could get paid for their plasma. Not everyone who has plasma extracted is paid for it, I think the term just covers the act of removal from one person to be placed in another person, not whether money changes hands.

In my area, Seattle, our main volunteer blood donation organization is called Bloodworks Northwest.

All donations, whether whole blood, platelets, plasma, etc., are donated voluntarily at Bloodworks Northwest.

We have other donation organizations for just plasma, one called BioLife Plasma Services. This organization pays people for plasma, and you can become a "regular" donor and be paid. There is another one called CSL Plasma where donors are paid.

I'm a regular blood donor and donate through Bloodworks Northwest. Bloodworks Northwest often has donor drives and goes to many employers in the area. I've not heard of the plasma donation sites and found them via Google. I know many regular donors at Bloodworks but no one I know donates at the plasma centers, that I know of anyway.

On the Bloodworks website, it says:

Bloodworks Northwest is a volunteer donor supported organization and does not pay for blood or plasma donations.

FDA regulations do not permit compensation for blood that is used for transfusion purposes. Studies have shown that volunteer donors provide the safest blood supply for transfusion into patients. Bloodworks is fully committed to remaining a volunteer donor supported organization.

I also found this article on the Stanford Blood Center website explaining why the FDA is reluctant to use blood when the donors are paid:

https://stanfordbloodcenter.org/pulse-volunteer-donations/

Thanks for the link, sephia. Thoughtful words and practices of Stanford are the norm.

I've never donated plasma but I started doing surveys after I retired to make a little money and for something to do. Yougov takes forever to earn anything but I found Prolific much better. I recently did two surveys, one for $9 and one for $6. Most aren't that much and it does take time to do the ones that pay more. I don't do them every day, but I have made over $200 in about 3 or 4 weeks just doing a few every other day or so. I also don't do the ones that want access to anything personal on my computer. I get paid for Prolific surveys via Paypal. You can cash the money out whenever you want and it's nearly immediate.

^^Kathy -- How did you know which companies were reputable and weren't just trying to scam your information? I'll have to check out Prolific, sounds like you haven't had any trouble with them.

Good question. I think some are a little of both but they're probably not all the same.

Back to plasma, some interesting stats in this paper. The US is able provide about 64% of the world’s plasma because it’s compensated here. 50% of the world’s supply comes from 1 million frequent donors here.

https://www.fdic.gov/system/files/2024-08/gallagher-paper.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com

And yes, the paper repeatedly refers to ”compensated donors.”

And re the UK, apparently domestic donations were banned for quite some time until recently, requiring imports - primarily from the US - to fulfill their needs.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhs-patients-receive-first-home-grown-blood-plasma-treatments

food, the first link is a study done by two business professors. They're examining the demographic and household financial consequences of compensated activity. Not the ethics or medical considerations of same.

Please do read the short Stanford article that sephia links to just above. I think it's a reasonable and unbiased assessment, written by people running a blood collection activity. One of the facts discussed is that plasma is not for direct patient treatment, like whole blood is. Providing it isn't a humanitarian gesture like donating blood. They say:

" Paid plasma donations are mostly associated with for-profit companies, and source plasma is primarily used for the creation of other drugs and therapies or for research "

So it's used as an ingredient by a business making products they sell. Just like furniture manufacturers that procure their needed inputs by buying wood and fabric from people who sell such things.

One of the conclusions in the Stanford piece is:

" Ultimately, a volunteer donor system is the safest, most reliable and most ethical donation system of the three systems used internationally. "

Thanks for calling my attention to that article. In the discussion of ”source plasma” near the end it discusses the for-profit uses, how these are more carefully screened and processed than direct transfusion products. I also saw the safety of our paid plasma supplies noted in the UK discussion. All of which to me does not relate to the earlier ethics discussion. Should you be questioned for selling your trees to the furniture manufacturer rather than giving?

edit - Reading your post again a bit more clearly, I see you are aware of the difference between the humanitarian non-compensated products versus the commercial products. Obviously porkchop is looking at the commercial side.

" Should you be questioned for selling your trees to the furniture manufacturer rather than giving? "

No, not at all. But nor would I call it a "donation" if the wood were sold for the manufacture and ultimate sale of hospital beds or toys for children in hospitals.

As for the Stanford piece, it's a reminder that people outside a field risk misunderstanding or not fully understanding what underlies conclusions when reading simplified technical pieces; I trust the experts to make informed decisions.

All I wanted to know is if anyone any did this and what their experience was {shrug}.

You've been hijacked porkchop

I know. {sigh...}

The conversation turned off the highway and went through a few adjacent neighborhoods. I learned a lot from what others contributed. Especially the Stanford article. Also kathsgarden's experiences with easy ways to pick up additional spending money.

I don't know about others but I think detours from an original topic are typical in real life conversations.

porkchop, I guess my question is what’s the question? They stick a needle in your arm, take out blood, separate it, return it. As I understand it, it’s similar to giving double red but takes longer. And from my experience, giving double red feels like giving whole blood but takes longer. At least one person here has done plasma, you can ask specific questions. As to if it’s worth it, that’s subjective.

"porkchop, I guess my question is what’s the question?"

I suppose specifically whether it's any more involved than donating blood, how long it takes, and if the compensation was worth the time and effort (to drive there and all).

porkchop, IMO your question really cannot be answered by anyone other than yourself. The parts about ”…any more involved…how long….” should be easy to answer with a call to the place that processes the blood. As for whether the compensation is worth the time & effort - that’s a personal thing based on personal circumstances etc. What’s the time value of the compensation - to you?

Just to keep the detours going.

One reason UK had import of plasma is mad cows disease. My husband lived in England in the 80s and was not allowed to donate blood until recently.

i lived in Italy in the early 90s and was not allowed to donate either until recently

Driving even farther off the 'donation' highway... I wish people would not confuse blood or body parts with sperm and ova.

These are not interchangeable 'parts', but the unique components of one's children.

I don’t think anyone is confused about the differences, just noting commonality in those being paid to provide biological matter being referred to as donors.