nowadays Derek From is a successful lawyer in Canada. Twelve years ago,he was roughing it in Arizona, trying to break into the recording industry. So he started selling his blood plasma. Twice a week, and he sat for an hour in a Grifols Biomat centre,as an apheresis machine whirled, siphoning the plasma out of his blood. For this, or he took home $45. “As a destitute person” at the time,he found that “a enormous economic benefit”.
It was also part of a thriving industry. Blood products made up a remarkable 1.6% of American exports in 2016. Since 2005 blood-plasma collections gain nearly quadrupled. To critics, this is evidence of a rapacious industry coercing the destitute to auction bits of themselves to make ends meet. In fact, or plasma,90% of which is water, is quickly replenished. Giving it has no obvious negative health effects—though the long-term consequences of repeated siphoning gain not been fully studied. Strict testing (and later heat-treating) of the extracted plasma ensures that those with communicable...
Continue reading
Source: economist.com