Ontario is right to ban paid donations of blood plasma: Editorial

[Clark]

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2014/03/19/ontario_is_right_to_ban_paid_donations_of_blood_plasma_editorial.html

Ontario is right to ban paid donations of blood plasma: Editorial
Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews is right to ban paid donations of blood plasma even though Canadian Plasma Resources vows to resist.

Blood is a sensitive topic in Canada, and rightly so. About 30,000 Canadians were unknowingly infected with HIV and hepatitis C during the 1980s from tainted blood and plasma they had been assured was safe.
Thousands of lives were cut short. Infected blood, purchased from disreputable sources, including derelicts on U.S. skid rows, was at the root of the problem. A resulting inquiry led by Justice Horace Krever urged significant efforts to ensure that blood products used in Canada are made from the blood and plasma of unpaid donors.
It makes sense. People who voluntarily give the gift of blood — motivated by altruism instead of financial reward — present a safer source than those who are down-and-out and reduced to selling their bodily fluids.
So there was understandable concern when a private company announced it intended to compensate people with $25 per donation to filter plasma from their blood. Plasma is a yellowish liquid carrying red blood cells throughout the body and there’s big money in harvesting it for the pharmaceutical industry. Two paid plasma clinics were planned for Toronto, and one in Hamilton, to meet market demand and “create jobs right here in Ontario,” said Barzin Bahardoust, CEO of Canadian Plasma Resources.
Health Minister Deb Matthews appeared to quash his profitable business plan last week when she announced the province would make regulatory changes and introduce legislation specifically prohibiting paying for blood or plasma donations. Matthews was entirely right to do so, but Canadian Plasma Resources is fighting back.
It opened its Adelaide St. clinic on Tuesday and began training staff, with Bahardoust insisting there are legal grounds on which to resist the ban announced by Matthews. To be fair, the company does have some facts on its side.
Matthews says she wants to stop for-profit plasma collection from compromising the integrity of Canada’s voluntary system. But Canadians already rely on medications made with paid plasma donations. Plasma is a commodity, one that’s processed internationally for pharmaceutical use, mainly using raw material collected by U.S. companies that pay donors. It stands to reason the current system wouldn’t be rendered any less safe by paying Canadians and sending their plasma off to join whatever is collected elsewhere. (Blood and plasma used in transfusions in this country still come strictly from volunteers.)
Furthermore, a Winnipeg company has paid for plasma on a small scale in Manitoba for many years, and it hasn’t reduced the number of altruistic donors lining up to give blood.
So why ban paid plasma donations? Two reasons: history and principle. Canadians have long been dedicated to altruistic giving. Call it a national trait. Voluntarism is the essence of Canada’s blood supply system and that principle is worth maintaining.
Then there’s the issue of trust. The tainted blood scandal in this country and the memory of its ravages pose a lasting challenge to maintaining public faith in Canada’s blood supply. It’s not enough for this supply to be safe — of course it must. But saying it’s so isn’t enough. People need to believe it’s clean, beyond even the faintest hint of doubt. Given our history, this level of trust isn’t easy to maintain. Bold assurances of safety were issued in the past with disastrous consequences.
That’s why any private company, motivated by profit, paying disadvantaged Canadians to harvest their fluid inevitably raises concern. It saps public confidence in the system. Canadian Plasma Resources’ tenacious refusal to accept Ontario’s ban further feeds unease. By challenging the government, this company risks being perceived as a corporate loose cannon — hardly an ideal reputation when working with blood.
On grounds of principle and history, Matthews’ ban deserves solid support in Ontario and elsewhere. Canada mustn’t undermine hard-won faith in its blood supply merely to support a profitable business venture.