Photo: At a Guangzhou blood station, Every day more than 10 laborers wait to “donate blood”

Voluntary blood donation is in essence a duty of each citizen, but this reporter – working undercover at a Guangzhou blood station - discovered that some people - out of a fear that giving blood will harm them - seek out day laborers to take their places and give blood. These laborers then take the blood donation certificate and receive between 100 and 500RMB payment. In this way they allow people who haven’t donated blood to carry a “Voluntary Blood Donation Certificate”.

During this reporting it became clear that this substitute blood donor arrangement comes about in large part because some work units (单位) are given a quota and compel their workers to donate blood in order to meet that quota.

Summary: The article goes on to interview some blood sellers, the head of the blood station, and officials from the department of health. They explain that there is no law banning the practice of substitute blood donors, and the head of the blood station says that his concern and responsibility is for the safety of the blood. Department of health officials stress that while the practice is not illegal, it is not a good phenomenon and that people’s fear of giving blood is due to their not understanding science. The article concludes by saying that some work units receive merit (xianjin danwei or wenming danwei) based on blood donations that were actually purchased, and says the people who deserve this merit are the good citizens who line up to voluntarily donate blood. [Note: This article does NOT discuss the potentially dangerous health implications of having a system in which there are paid blood donors.]

To read the entire Chinese article, click here