(no subject)
I donated blood today! A few highlights:
1. I read a release form that told me that if I test positive for HIV, several government agencies would be notified, in accordance with state law, and that if I wanted a list of who and why, I should just ask. But the nurse didn't know of any such list. I am quite curious as to who is keeping a register of people with HIV and what they intend to do with that information.
2. One of the questions was about whether I have ever had sex with someone who has hemophilia. Hemophilia is a genetic disease. I asked the nurse about that, too, and she said she was pretty sure hemophilia is sexually transmitted. What? (Then she looked it up and guessed that receiving clotting factors increases your chance of contracting HIV. Scary.)
3. I also got nervous when I was reading about the HIV test because (we did a problem about this in class!) in a typical population, 60% of positives will be false positives, so you should always test twice, and it makes me sad that they would throw out perfectly healthy blood, tattle to the government, and scare people to death for no reason. I wanted to ask about double-testing, but I didn't because I'd already asked lots of questions and I didn't want the nurse to get suspicious that I was engaging in risky behaviors (don't I wish).
4. Free cookies and doritos.
5. I bet if some person from the Olden Days were whisked forward in time and learned about some of the advances in medical technology, they'd be horrified. I mean, there are people who think harvesting organs and things sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel (and, okay, they're right). But instead of de-sanctifying and commodifying human life, I think it does the opposite: no matter how many cool machines and stuff you have, or how many millions you spend doing creepy experiments, the only things that can produce real human blood are real human people. I like it. It's a comfortingly personal aspect of what some think is over science-ization.
1. I read a release form that told me that if I test positive for HIV, several government agencies would be notified, in accordance with state law, and that if I wanted a list of who and why, I should just ask. But the nurse didn't know of any such list. I am quite curious as to who is keeping a register of people with HIV and what they intend to do with that information.
2. One of the questions was about whether I have ever had sex with someone who has hemophilia. Hemophilia is a genetic disease. I asked the nurse about that, too, and she said she was pretty sure hemophilia is sexually transmitted. What? (Then she looked it up and guessed that receiving clotting factors increases your chance of contracting HIV. Scary.)
3. I also got nervous when I was reading about the HIV test because (we did a problem about this in class!) in a typical population, 60% of positives will be false positives, so you should always test twice, and it makes me sad that they would throw out perfectly healthy blood, tattle to the government, and scare people to death for no reason. I wanted to ask about double-testing, but I didn't because I'd already asked lots of questions and I didn't want the nurse to get suspicious that I was engaging in risky behaviors (don't I wish).
4. Free cookies and doritos.
5. I bet if some person from the Olden Days were whisked forward in time and learned about some of the advances in medical technology, they'd be horrified. I mean, there are people who think harvesting organs and things sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel (and, okay, they're right). But instead of de-sanctifying and commodifying human life, I think it does the opposite: no matter how many cool machines and stuff you have, or how many millions you spend doing creepy experiments, the only things that can produce real human blood are real human people. I like it. It's a comfortingly personal aspect of what some think is over science-ization.