I cut myself with a knife which I was using in a foolhardy manner. Apparently you need to lose 4 out of your bodies 12 pints of blood to actually die.
I tried to give blood before but was denied due to my "congenital heart defect". I like to think of it as my hearts desire for individuality.
But I got to thinking about the red cross and their blood drives and the whole idea of blood donation. I mean, when did DONATION come into the picture? And why do we just accept this as normal? Is this from the war - another one of those things like income tax that just turns into a cash cow?I mean, the Red Cross does not GIVE the blood it collects away, it sells it.
From a 2002 article on the cost of blood:
The information hospitals want is how much of that unit price is for collection and storage and how much for marketing and overhead. The Red Cross responds this way. “The cost of collection has certainly gone up. I can’t really quantify that because we didn’t keep very good records but I know now certainly it is very expensive to collect and process and ship blood to hospitals.”
And, as far as I can tell, the medical industry in general does not really seem to be hurting for money. And yet these blood donations remain kind of a badge of honor somehow. Somewhere a business man is laughing.
