Introduction
- Topic: Obligatory Scheduled Blood Donation from Healthy People
- Issue: The lack of blood supply in the U.S. emergency healthcare facilities calls for the introduction of obligatory blood donations from healthy people.
- Thesis: By creating a health policy according to which healthy people should donate blood regularly, healthcare experts will avoid the situations in which there is an insufficient amount of blood for transfusion during an emergency.
Blood Transfusion as a Crucial Service for Emergency Cases
Blood transfusion is required for a large number of healthcare procedures, including most surgeries, yet the supply of blood in most healthcare settings is very limited.
Blood transfusion often turns out to be vital for the further recovery of a patient, which is why mandatory blood donation would help to reduce the current death toll as a result of the lack of blood supply (Dreier et al., 2018).
Mandatory blood transfusions will help to address the situations in which people are unaware of their ability to save other people’s lives by donating blood.
Common Myths Preventing People from Donating Blood
A range of people hesitate to donate blood due to the associated myths perpetuated in modern society.
It is commonly believed that blood for transfusions can be stored without a time limit, yet the specified statement could not be further from the truth.
Most people believe that taking medications or having low iron levels are the conditions under which they are not allowed to donate blood, yet the specified issues need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis to determine the opportunity to donate.
Outcomes of Failing to Locate Blood Donors for Transfusion
With the majority of people being unaware of blood donation options, a vast number of patients who are in need for blood transfusion face potential death or, at the very least, severe health deterioration due to the lack of blood supplies.
The lack of blood supply for transfusion encourages people to seek other methods of obtaining the required blood supply, which, combined with the pressure of urgency, creates breeding grounds for the mismanagement of the issue, such as donating and transfusing the wrong blood type (Gehrie et al., 2020).
Counterargument
Since donating blood requires a thorough health check, the process of evaluating donors for each instance of blood transfusion will require immense expenses.
As a result, the government will have to cut costs for other vital services, reducing the quality of care.
The donor may have a terminal illness that can be transmitted via blood, which makes the risk of blood donation immeasurably high.
Rebuttal
The diseases that do not allow for blood transfusion include only two conditions, namely, jaundice, hepatitis, and AIDS/HIV whereas the rest of the conditions can be considered safe for blood donations.
Therefore, running three quick tests will help to determine an individual’s legitimacy for blood donation.
Methods of Encouraging People to Donate Blood
- The role of blood donation in saving people’s lives needs to be discussed on a broader level, including social media platforms, which allow dispersing information with cosmic speed.
- The ethical significance of donation., namely, the opportunity to save lives, must be emphasized as the main argument in favor of donation.
Conclusion
Due to the low blood supply for transfusions in the clinical setting, a range of patients face death or, at the very least, countless health complications.
The unwillingness to donate blood stems primarily from the fear of consequences, most of which represent baseless myths.
Therefore, by building awareness s and making blood donations mandatory for healthy adults aged 21 and up, one will be able to address the donor blood crisis in the U.S.
References
Dreier, J., Knabbe, C., & Vollmer, T. (2018). Transfusion-transmitted hepatitis E: NAT screening of blood donations and infectious dose. Frontiers in Medicine, 5, 5. Web.
Gehrie, E., Tormey, C. A., & Sanford, K. W. (2020). Transfusion service response to the COVID-19 pandemic. American Journal of Clinical Pathology, 154(3), 280-285. Web.