EU regulation of blood donation and the importation of blood and blood products

Autores/as

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1344/rbd2019.0.27451

Palabras clave:

Blood donation, EU Regulation, Not-For-Profit Principle, Public Health, Human Dignity, Civic Duty

Resumen

The European Union recommends unpaid blood donation because it deems this to be the safest way of collecting blood and the best way of respecting the dignity of the donor as well as certain ethical principles relating to the availability of human-origin products. However, the risk of suffering shortages of blood has led EU law to authorize the importation and consequent circulation across EU territory of blood from countries where the law allows donors to be paid. This paper analyses the inconsistency this represents and mentions the alternative of blood donation becoming a civic duty. This would allow the necessary amounts of blood to be collected in a more consistent way for EU regulation than the situation as it currently stands.

Biografía del autor/a

Pol Cuadros Aguilera, Universitat de Lleida

Área Filosodía del Derecho, Moral y Política; Departamento Derecho Público, Facultad de Derecho, Economía y Turismo; Universitat de Lleida.

Citas

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Communication from the Commission on Blood Safety and Self-Sufficiency in the European Community, COM (94) 652 final, Brussels, 1994.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE, Committee of Ministers, Recommendation No. R (83) 8 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on preventing the possible transmission of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) from affected blood donors to patients receiving blood or blood products, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 23 June 1983 at the 361st meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE, Committee of Ministers, Recommendation No R (88) 4 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on the responsibilities of health authorities in the field of blood transfusion, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 7 March 1988, at the 415th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE, Committee of Ministers, Recommendation No. R (90) 9 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on plasma products and European self-sufficiency, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 29 March 1990 at the 436th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies.

CUADROS AGUILERA, Pol, La donación de sangre. Historia y crítica de su regulación, Civitas, Pamplona, 2018.

Decision of the Council and the Ministers for Health of the Members States, Meeting within the Council of 4 June 1991 adopting a plan of action in the framework of the 1991 to 1993 ‘Europe against AIDS’ programme.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Successful Health Council on 15 November, Brussels, European Commission, 2001.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, Resolution on blood safety in the European Union, Official Journal C 249, 25/09/1995.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, Resolution on the communication from the Commission on blood safety and self-sufficiency in the European Community, Official Journal C 141, 13/05/1996.

FABRE, Cécile, Whose Body is it Anyway? Justice and the Integrity of the Person, Clarendon Press, Oxford and New York, 2006.

PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE, Recommendation 985. Supply and utilization of human blood and blood products, 1984.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL PRODUCTS AND MEDICAL DEVICES, Opinion on the Quality and Safety of Blood, SANCO/SCMPMD/2000/0005 Final, Luxembourg, SCMDMP, European Commission, 2000.

STARR, Douglas, Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce, Little, Brown and Company, London, 1998.

WHO, WHA28.72 Utilization and supply of human blood and blood products, Twenty-Eighth World Health Assembly, Geneva, 13-30 May 1975.

VAN DER POEL, CL, “Remuneration of blood donors: new proof of the pudding”, Vox Sanguinis, 2008; 98: 169-170.

Descargas

Publicado

2019-10-08

Cómo citar

Cuadros Aguilera, P. (2019). EU regulation of blood donation and the importation of blood and blood products. Revista De Bioética Y Derecho, (47), 129–140. https://doi.org/10.1344/rbd2019.0.27451