Increase Payments to Australian Blood Donors for Emergency Care

Offering payment to potential blood donors would increase the availability of blood for transfusion in medical emergencies.

Cells are the building blocks of all living things and are made up of a nucleus, cell membrane, vacuole, and cytoplasm. Not all cells are the same they are specialized to make tissues, but they are made up of many, specialized cells. Two different types of specialized tissues make organs and two or more organs help systems such as the circulatory system. The circulatory system is made up of veins and the heart that pumps the blood around and it takes 42 seconds to get back to the same spot where it has started.

If the people in Australia don’t have enough blood in the blood banks this could lead to not being able to provide blood transfusions to people when they need them during a medical emergency. It also means that Australia will have to import more blood from overseas.

Evidence

According to AABB (Advanced Transfusion and Cellular Therapies Worldwide), the United States of America have more blood donors (percentage of population) than Australia. The U.S is in need of a lot of blood, approximately 36,000 units of red blood cells are required but unfortunately, only 10% of the population donates blood. The hospitals and emergency departments for patients with cancer that require organ transplants and many other diseases, need this blood to help save their lives.

The Australian Red Cross Service says that in Australia only 3% of the population donates blood (compared to 10% in the U.S). One blood donation might be able to save up to 3 lives because the blood donation can be separated into different parts that can be used for different reasons. Australians need to donate 25,000 blood donations every week and one in three Australians need blood products or blood.

In the U.S, people get paid for donating plasma. Donating plasma takes much longer (approx. 1.5 hours), but doing a straight blood donation takes only about 15 minutes. When someone donates plasma after it is taken from their body, the plasma is removed with a machine, and then the rest of the blood is put back into the donor. Plasma can be stored for up to a year, but whole blood can only be stored for up to six weeks.

Most countries don’t allow people to get paid for giving blood, but the U.S does, and they not only generate enough for themselves, but they also export it around the world to countries that don’t have enough. According to ESSA, Australia is one of these countries and spends approximately $150 million per year importing extra plasma from the U.S.

According to Joint United Kingdom (UK) Blood Transfusion and Tissue Transplantation Services Professional Advisory Committee, “The Jehovah’s Witnesses have roughly 7.5 million active members worldwide and around 130 000 in the United Kingdom, they are the most well-known religious community that declines the transfusion of specific blood components. Their decision isn’t related to perceived risks of transfusion but is a scriptural stand based on the bibles texts, such as ‘the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whoever eats it shall be cut off’ and ‘abstain from the meats offered to idols and from blood’.”

Australia should change because it will be better for the future of people’s lives. With a lot more blood donations, more people who need it in an emergency will be able to get it. Seeing Australia already spends a lot of money buying extra plasma from the U.S., it would make sense to pay Australians and help them get extra money rather than buy it from America which has already paid their people for it. Australia is already using the blood they have paid for, so they may as well pay their own people. Some factors that may get in the way of Australia's change are ethical issues such as religious beliefs (some people don’t allow blood transfusions regardless of how sick someone is) and that some people believe a donation should be something you give for free.