Canadians - please sign petition to stop paid blood donor clinics

by OrphanCrow 5 Replies latest watchtower medical

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  OrphanCrow

  Blood saves lives. A safe blood supply is vital for the health of everybody.

  In Canada, the province with the highest rates of HIV and Hep C is Saskatchewan. And it is in this province, run by a right wing government, where for-profit blood donation will be rolled out.

  http://regina.ctvnews.ca/company-that-pays-for-blood-donations-opening-first-sask-clinic-1.2741056

  And a video as to why paid blood donor clinics are dangerous to a country's blood supply:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaUHhHBbkV0

  If you are a Canadian, and feel as strongly as I do about protecting our blood supply, this is the link to a petition that is open for signatures until May 17, 2016:

  https://petitions.parl.gc.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-126

  Whereas:

  • Over 30,000 Canadians were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C via tainted blood in Canada, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Canadians and harming countless families;

  • Canada spent $17 million dollars on a publicly-funded federal inquiry which revealed that the paid-donor system was a key factor contributing to Canadians receiving tainted blood;

  • Billions of dollars in compensation have been given to those who received tainted blood and their families due, in part, to Canada's former reliance on blood from paid donors;

  • The Krever Inquiry recommended an end to a private, for-profit blood donor system in Canada, citing these five basic principles regarding how the blood system should be governed: 1. Blood is a public resource; 2. Donors should not be paid; 3. Sufficient blood should be collected so that importation from other countries is unnecessary; 4. Access to blood and blood products should be free and universal; and 5. Safety of the blood supply system is paramount;

  • Our blood plasma is not meant to be a commodity that is bought and sold, we must protect our voluntary blood system in Canada and ensure we have one national operator, the Canadian Blood Services, to oversee blood collection and plasma collection in our country.

  We, the undersigned, residents of Canada, request (or call upon) the Government of Canada to:
  Refuse to issue or approve any license to Canadian Plasma Resources or other private, for-profit, donor-paid blood products company to operate in Canada; and
  Implement legislation that ensures no for-profit, donor-paid blood donor clinics are allowed to operate in Canada.
• 

  the girl next door

  I thought this issue had been addressed many years ago and billions had been paid out in compensation? Canada has not learned its lessons? crazy
• 

  Bruisedandbleeding12

  Done!
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  talesin

  tgnd - that is misleading. The Red Cross bought blood from the USA and Russia, not from donors. Paying blood donors is new to Canada. That's why the business was taken away from The Red Cross and Canadian Blood Services was instituted.

  ref: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/03/05/blood_for_sale_a_new_low_for_the_canadian_blood_system.html

  Two decades ago, 30,000 Canadians, recipients of blood and plasma products, were infected with HIV and hepatitis C. Some of the tainted blood was purchased from “blood brokers” whose supplies came from Arkansas prisons, L.A.’s “skid row” and Russian funeral homes. Confronted with a blood shortage and weighing the odds, Health Canada and the Canadian Red Cross, then stewards of Canada’s blood system, accepted it anyway.
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  zeb

  Donating blood is not paid but actually illegal in Australia to be paid for any blood donation.

  This far sighted policy from years (pre-aids) ago has to a very high degree kept druggies from poisoning the blood supply.

  I am amazed that Canada has a 'paid 'situation' ...hey come on Canada get with the program!
• 

  OrphanCrow

  An update on the Canadian plasma clinic.

  It has already opened and has been buying blood. However, they do not have buyers for that blood yet and the controversy is still ongoing.

  This is a recent article that reveals not only the health risks involved, but also the politics that is driving the controversy.

  Blood money: Legislated out of Ontario, Canadian Plasma Resources courts controversy with Saskatoon clinic

  It is an emotionally charged issue with critics and supporters facing off. The opponents to the paid clinics include the Ontario Hemophilia Society, the World Health Organization and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

  What complicates the issue is the ownership of the company Canadian Plasma Resources:

  Beyond the debate on compensation for plasma donations, Canadian Plasma Resources has faced challenges over its ties to Iran.
  In September, the Federal Court upheld a Canada Border Services Agency decision to deny a work permit for Ramin Fallah, a shareholder in Canadian Plasma Resources’ parent company, Exa Pharma Inc., who had been hired as an executive.

  The CBSA claimed his former employer, Fanavari Azmayeshgahi, “has been identified in open sources and by allied governments as being an entity of (weapons of mass destruction) concern.”

  The court found that Fallah did not raise any evidence to counter that allegation.

  Another alleged link to Iran’s nuclear program is through Canadian Plasma’s business partnership with the German pharmaceutical company, Biotest AG, which has processing plants in the U.S. and Germany.

  Biotest has a joint venture called Bio Daru with pharmaceutical company Darou Pakhsh, which is on a list of Iranian companies Britain considers at risk of using exports for weapons of mass destruction proliferation. Nasser Riahi, founder of Exa Pharma and father of its president, Yalda Riahi, is also a founder of Bio Daru.

  Bahardoust said Nasser “severed his ties with Exa Pharma years ago,” and Yalda is now the only member of the Riahi family with an interest in Canadian Plasma Resources.