By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Bone Marrow Donation and Compensation: My Moral Dilemma
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Policy & Law > Medical Ethics > Bone Marrow Donation and Compensation: My Moral Dilemma
Medical EthicsPolicy & Law

Bone Marrow Donation and Compensation: My Moral Dilemma

DavidEWilliams
DavidEWilliams
Share
6 Min Read
SHARE

bone marrow donation and compensation

bone marrow donation and compensation

It’s a criminal offense to pay a person to donate an organ. That policy fits well with societal norms that restrict commerce in certain areas. For example we don’t allow people to sell themselves into slavery. We certainly don’t want people to be coerced for financial reasons to sell their organs and endanger their lives.

And yet, arguments for paying for organ donation exist. People die all the time for lack of a suitable organ available for transplant. Is it right to interfere with their pursuit of life, health and happiness by restricting how people use their wealth? And of course doctors and hospitals charge for their services in performing transplants, so it’s not as though there isn’t money changing hands.

More Read

Image
A Healthier Conversation
Workplace Well-being Laws: Legal Framework for Mental Health in the Workplace
Why It’s So Hard to Control Medicaid Spending
Medical Homes – A Boost to Primary Care
Brazilian Blowout Goes Beyond FDA to Capitol Hill

The issue has come to the fore again recently, with the federal government’s proposal to ban compensation for bone marrow collected in a less invasive manner. This one touches a nerve for me, because a couple years ago I made a decision not to follow through as a bone marrow donor even after I had been told that I had matched with a patient. More on that in a moment.

Compensation for bone marrow donors has long been banned as part of the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA), which defines bone marrow as an organ. That made sense in a way because extraction of bone marrow is fairly invasive and somewhat risky. But, according to MedPage Today:

Under a method called peripheral blood cell apheresis, donors receive injections to stimulate HSC production. HSCs are collected via an apheresis machine from donors’ central veins before the remaining blood is returned.

Some places, including a California nonprofit called MoreMarrowDonors.org, wanted to award up to $3,000 in scholarships, housing allowances, or gifts to charity for mixed-race and minority bone marrow donors who donated using the apheresis method. Various advocates of such compensation, including parents of children with leukemia and aplastic anemia, filed a preemptive lawsuit, saying that NOTA’s ban on compensation was unconstitutional if it were to be applied to apheresis.

The feds have responded by proposing to change the definition of bone marrow so that the method of collection is irrelevant.

There are good arguments on both sides of this, and I suggest you check out the MedPage story to learn more.

Meanwhile, here’s my story.  A few years ago I joined a bone marrow registry and had a cheek swab taken. I did it as part of a community event where a registry was signing people up. The staffers were mainly people whose relatives had benefited from bone marrow transplants.

A couple years later I got a call. I had matched up with a patient who needed a bone marrow transplant. I was told to come in for more testing and then possibly undergo a traditional extraction process or apheresis. My initial inclination was to follow through, but after talking to some physician friends who understood the process better, I ultimately decided not to do it and took myself off the registry. As a human being and a father I felt somewhat guilty about my decision, but also quite certain I was doing the right thing for me.

Here are the questions I pondered: If I didn’t follow through, how likely was the patient to find another match? (There’s no way to know – the registry won’t provide any information about that.) How likely was the patient to benefit from a bone marrow transplant and to what extent? (It’s not a miracle cure – and doesn’t always help at all.) I balanced those issues against the small but real safety risk of being a donor – which could ultimately be costly to my well-being and affect my ability to support my family — and the inconvenience of going through the procedure. Call me selfish if you want – I’d certainly be angry if I were the patient needing a transplant as opposed to the donor – but that’s how I decided.

As I reflected on it, I decided I would be willing to donate for a family member or a friend, but not for a stranger. I should have figured that out before signing up but didn’t.

This still leaves the question of compensation open. In my case it would not have made a difference. But I’m sure it would be decisive for others who are hesitant. Whether they should be allowed to be compensated or not I’m still unsure.

A letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal suggests that this whole debate is beside the point, and that stem cell transplants from other sources such as umbilical cords are solving the problem for us. Maybe the real focus should be to provide better funding to the NIH to advance approaches that make these moral dilemmas go away.

photo credit: umjanedoan via photopin cc
—–

TAGGED:bone marrow donation
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

a woman walking on the hallway
6 Easy Healthcare Ways to Sit Less and Move More Every Day
Health
September 9, 2025
Clinical Expertise
Healthcare at a Crossroads: Why Leadership Matters More Than Ever
Global Healthcare
September 9, 2025
travel nurse in north carolina
Balancing Speed and Scope: Choosing the Nursing Degree That Fits Your Goals
Nursing
September 1, 2025
intimacy
How to Keep Intimacy Comfortable as You Age
Relationship and Lifestyle Senior Care
September 1, 2025

You Might also Like

Immigrant Lobby in Vermont Quick to Deride Single-Payer Bill

May 2, 2011

Telemonitoring at Work in the Netherlands

November 25, 2013

Hippocratic Oath, Then and Now

August 23, 2012

Bacteriophages: A Ray of Hope in the Fight against Antibacterial Resistance?

September 29, 2015
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?