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Comment by moduspol | Hacker News Reader

I was hoping the article would clarify how it was determined that he had this specific abnormality. I've given blood before. Is this the kind of thing they check for and would have informed me if I had? Or do doctors have to go out of their way to check for it?

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It's not at all clear why he produced such high quality antibodies, but one theory was the sheer quantity of transfusions he had to receive after a lung operation (something on the order of 7.4L of blood). They have no idea why he continued to produce them after, however.

One of the benefits of blood donation is your blood is screened for a bunch of stuff.

I do wish they'd expand the testing a bit. I think a lot of people would donate if it came with a metabolic panel, for example.

There are ethical concerns if a donation is not of free will and with no expectation of benefits.

If you get blood panel results with a "donation", it's an exchange of value, not a donation.

Also ethical problems with paid staff and executives that treat the volunteer donation system like a business.

See: various blood-donation-borne disease scandals in history.

Nobody seems to ask for those positions to all become volunteer/unpaid.

Nevertheless, there seems enough blood from a donation-only system, but not so for plasma (or most other live donation systems).

Also there's more incentive to lie about things that can disqualify one like sexual practices which is not a good idea.

That doesn't answer the question.

From the link in the article: https://www.lifeblood.com.au/blood/learn-about-blood/plasma/... it sounds like they test people who are RH negative who give plasma. So if you know you are a RH negative man or woman past childbearing years you can donate plasma and ask. I've given plasma before and it wasn't mentioned but I'm RH+.

In my experience, yes. If you give blood, they will test it in all sorts of ways, and if you are identified as having an unusual helpful factor, they will reach out and encourage you to continue donating.

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