Kat Lanteigne’s opinion piece in the Ottawa Citizen:
The debate over whether to pay people for their plasma is not a scientific one. It is about whether or not the people of B.C. want to allow private blood brokers to take over the role of Canadian Blood Services (CBS).
Paid is private, meaning that the only goal of collecting plasma would be for a pharmaceutical company to make a profit off of Canadian blood. CBS was born from the deaths of thousands of Canadians because of the tainted blood crisis. This public blood system has been part of our social contract for almost twenty years and CBS’s responsibility is to collect blood and plasma on behalf of Canadians.
The landmark Krever Inquiry laid out fundamental recommendations as to how to maintain the integrity of our voluntary blood system. Blood must remain a public resource, donors should not be paid, and no part of the national blood operators’ duties should be contracted out to other parties. These recommendations are just as pertinent today.
Read the full article on the Ottawa Citizen Website