Le Moyne College Calendar

In recent years, various Canadian provincial governments have prohibited paying people for their plasma donation. Prohibitionists defend these laws on the grounds that such payment exploits the plasma donors. In this presentation, Mark Wells, a candidate for the McNeil Professorship. will cast doubt on the merits of this defense. First, even on a broad and ecumenical account of exploitation, there is reason to doubt that paying Canadians for plasma is exploitative per se. Second, even if such payment is so exploitative, such exploitation would not suffice to justify prohibition. This is because such prohibition must either lead to the deaths of many who depend on plasma products or to merely shift the exploitation to other, more vulnerable, populations.

For more information, contact Professor Ludger Viefhues-Bailey at [email protected]