Finally, money for bone marrow donations!
Many hospitals frequently have shortages of blood. The blood shortages have become more acute recently as the number of donors has been declining. While progress has been made in educating the public about blood donations, many hospitals have had to offer non-monetary incentives to donors. The incentives have often been in the form of discounted tickets to shopping plazas or visit to museums and so on. In most cases, hospitals can accommodate blood shortages by acquiring blood from Red Cross blood banks.
However the situation is drastically different for bone marrow. Unlike blood, bone marrow donations are only done when a family member is in need. Moreover, bone marrow donation is a more extensive procedure and depending on how it is done, anesthesia may be required. Up until now, bone marrow donors could not be compensated but it is expected that a pending lawsuit is going to bring about change and make bone marrow donation more profitable
There is word from the Institute of Justice that a suit has been filed against Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., requesting that he be enjoined from implementing the federal criminal prohibition on compensating bone marrow donors. The prohibition made in 1984, is contained in the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA). Other plaintiffs in the case include patients with blood disorders like leukemia, multiple myeloma and thalassemia. The plaintiff have put forward an argument that lack of a bone marrow means that they cannot be cured and go through untold suffering; so why not make bone marrow transplant possible by offering donations?
Each year close to 35,000 Americans are diagnosed with blood disorder like leukemia, multiple myeloma, lymphoma and bone marrow failure and the only successful treatment is a bone marrow transplant.
“Of these thousands of terribly sick people, fewer than 1,000 are likely to have a family member whose tissue-type matches closely enough — so then, a match must be found in an unrelated person,” said Barbara Hile, stem cell department director for Michigan Blood, formerly the Michigan Community Blood Center. “That’s where the NMDP’s international donor registry comes in.”
However, while the proponents do make the donation argument good, there is a concern that monetary compensation for bone marrow donors may be a magnet for high risk donors. This may lead to many other complications, including the transmission of deadly virus infections.