I had donated blood over 60 times in the past. I have CLL which normally means the "B" cells do not operate normally with marking bad things inside the body. Our problem is that when you have these bad cells marking healthy cells which other cells attack we start to have health problems. I do not think there is enough cells in a donating to cause long term harm? A person requiring a donation already has health problems so those bad cells may find something to mark for destruction. I think this donation question comes down to "be safe than sorry?" Once I drove 120 miles to donate for a friends father's heart surgery. Now I do not miss donating blood since I give many samples each year.

Ya, I used to be a regular blood donor, but had to stop. I had to renew my state identification and remove the 'organ donor' designation. I debated the issue if being a donor with my oncologist, asking if a heart or other life saving organ patient on a waiting list had a choice of recieving my donated organ and possibly contacting CLL, that that would be his choice. I always wore my 'leukemia bracelet' for that reason... even though I am in remission for almost two years now, with my blood labs barely shows any sign that I even had it.

I can understand the concerns though.

I was told you can not Donate Blood..so I never Donated Blood before I got Diagnosed with Leukemia..we can kill someone..I would never take the chance

I am not a medical researcher. Regarding receipts of blood from anyone having a disease known or unknown. Simple logic is that no matter how they screen the blood, plasma,etc. It would be almost impossible to screen blood for all diseases which could be in the blood. In the 80's when Aids was just being diagnosed officially, they found their was a correlation with recipients getting aids from Aids infected blood.

Sheer logic gives rise that any disease floating around in your system can affect and contaminate your blood in some way. Donating blood could pass a disease. Thus, blood banks try to screen people.

Receiving blood or plasma should only be for lifesaving treatments.

As far as donating your organs. There are reseach labs who will accept them but otherwise there are too many liabilities associated with receiving organs for recycling which is basically what a transplanted organ is. I'm sure most research labs have an abundance of known diseased bodies. More people than we realized have some form of cancer. I have two diagnosed types.

I was helping a homeless guy and he told me when he's short on money he donates blood/plasma. Yes, he was a drug user and who knows what diseases he had. I'm sorry to say but all blood labs do not conform to the rules.

My oncologist said no blood or organ donations