Selling the gift of life? Altruistic motivation and monetary incentives for blood and plasma donations

In the past decades, most countries adopted a system of voluntary, non-remunerated blood and plasma donation. But how does an unpaid donation system compare to a paid system? This research project studies the economic and ethical aspects of blood commodification that occurs when blood donors are paid. A literature review summarizes the moral arguments for and against selling blood, behavioral economics models about the influence of material incentives on altruism, surveys on the acceptability of donor payments, and existing observational studies and field experiments about the consequences of donor payments on blood supply quantity and quality. The latter studies will be integrated in a meta-analysis to estimate the cost-effectiveness of blood donor payments. New surveys and field experiments, as well as existing observational data of the Flemish Red Cross, will be used to provide further empirical evidence of the harms and benefits of blood commodification on donors, patients and the rest of society.