The Exploitation of Blood

Blood is a natural resource. Blood cannot be made, only collected.

Actually it can be made, (link)

Blood donation and blood transfusions are actually very complex once you get into them.

but yeah, it is now possible to make blood form stem-cells.

Also i think it is worth remembering that unlike oil, blood is not a finite resource, its actually limitless, what is limited is the number of people willing to give their blood.

reply to post by ValentineWiggin

Starting on 3/19/03 until today the amount of casualties in Iraq has added up to 4,488 (American) soldiers.

A little short sighted on you part to mention the 5000 American soldiers that died in the war and leave out the million or so Iraqi civilians that died too...

The day I give blood is the day I would like to receive a tax credit for doing so

reply to post by Skywatcher2011


I hope you never need to use blood then, You wouldn't refuse it If it meant life or death would you?
Think about that.

Originally posted by boymonkey74
reply to post by Skywatcher2011

 

I hope you never need to use blood then, You wouldn't refuse it If it meant life or death would you?
Think about that.

So far so good

Life has a purpose and if I had to go I would gladly go. Until then, I will save my blood for someone special and dear to me who needs it.

Note: Most blood is wasted anyways because it has an expiry date in the fridge.

reply to post by Skywatcher2011


If everyone had that attitude and you was too far to give your blood to your nearest and dearest...they would die.
Watch out Karma can be a bitch sometimes..

You may find this interesting
www.bbc.com...

blood banks discard human platelets after just three to five days, and even then, the cell fragments occasionally get contaminated with fungi, bacteria, or viruses, causing potentially fatal complications in patients who receive transfusions. It also means there’s a chronic shortage of platelets.

Crowe’s freeze-dried platelets can be stored safely at room temperature for two years - a drastic improvement from five days.

This was written very well. I can't believe we have wasted that many HUMAN lives and that much money's worth of blood.
With 38% of the population being able to give blood, I really believe we should all begin doing it. Think about it, how would you feel if you were in desperate need of blood and there was none left for you?
I donate about every three months, I have O neg blood, and I used to not donate until one time my mother was very ill and needed a blood transfusion and I was the only one available.

Blood saves lives, oil doesn't.

I really wish I qualified to donate blood, but I had Lymphoma several years ago, so there's nothing I can do to change it. I'm also O-, and would gladly do it every few months if I could. I'm a registered as an organ donor, but I don't know how much of me they could use.

*raises finger*
Ummm,the Iraq issue aside,....may I address blood letting ?
It doesn't deserve such a bad rep .

blood letting done in the west,could be a bit over zealous ,and its what killed George Washington in the end. He was sick ,but repeated blood lets killed him . However,blood letting can save lives.
Leeches are still successfully used today ,and blood letting done in the east,is very very different from western blood letting .
No one has died from it,because its not that aggressive .

Western blood letting opened veins .Eastern blood letting involves pricking certain points with a needle ,no more that 1/3rd of an inch ,and just letting it bleed until it stops .
It's a Chinese medcine technique still used today ,all over the world .
I myself do it in my practice ,if need be . I've had it done to me ,and I completely fixed my moms leg with it ,when she was told it would never go back to its original state .

ahem ....

You can almost always tell how good an idea is that is posted here. If the stars and flags enter the 4 digit range in less than 8 hours, it probably is made up of ketchup and Splenda with a little # 2 red food dye thrown in to make it a little interesting. If it has real meat and potatoes it will mostly likely not get anymore S &F than you can count and will die within 3 days.

Good posts seem to be as valuable as blood, and they seem to be more difficult to find.

Thank you for a post that gave me something to think about.

Hi Valentine:

Very thoughtful, insightful thread. I especially like the comparisons of monetary value of oil, vs. blood. Absolutely brilliant way of thinking about this.

But, I'd like to disagree on one aspect of your OP, and your assertion that ancient, Biblical wars were not fought over blood....for they were, very much so. The Bible is rife with geneological references, as to Jacob begot, and so on and so on. Or the passage of: "Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite," etc. This, in fact is ALL ABOUT BLOOD. The last supper, and Christ's supposed words, take this wine, as it is my blood and drink of it and I will be with you. I actually have severe issues with this in particular, where the Bible and the depiction of his words at the Last Supper are concerned. It is certainly cannabalistic, in nature. But you will find much violence in the Bible such as this, conceptually and otherwise.

Nevertheless, many of those battles, repetitively moving in a circle of past and present events, coalescing, were at the heart of it, about blood.

Now, I realize that's not really the intent of your thread. And respect your point about humanity's value vs. commodities such as oil, and find this one of the best ways of expressing how "out of whack" we are, and evidently have been, for quite some time.

Great thread.
Tetra50

I get pretty bad nose bleeds from time to time and I like to just let it drain out in the sink for a while. I think safely bleeding every once in a while is good for you.