After reading your post, Chrissi, I got curious and looked up the rules here close to the North Pole. Turns out that concerning the donation of blood, according to the Red Cross the following groups can never give blood here. (It appears that hospitals online euphemistically rewrite this whole list into one sentence:
"If you've ever been in situations that increases the risk of contracting HIV/Hepatitis". and leave it to the reader to figure out what that means.)
- Men who have or ever have had sex with other men
- Women who engage in or previously have had sex with a man/men in the above group
- Former or current drug addicts
- People with Hepatitis or HIV/AIDS
- Prostitutes and former prostitutes
In addition there's a long list of people who cannot donate for some shorter or longer period of time. And if you've got a serious chronic disorder or illness, for instance a heart disorder, you're out of the question as a blood and organ donor, too. I also think that you're not allowed to donate if your country of origin lies in Africa south of Sahara, but couldn't find that on this list. Perhaps it's been removed.
I thought that the above list was unexpectedly and surpringly harsh, I wasn't aware of thge extent of those particular rules.
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The weird thing about the Dutch hoax TV show is that it got a lot of press and attention here when it was believed to be a real deal. There were lots of news stories accompagnied with moral outcry. The news that it was in fact a hoax got much less press, and the
reason behind the hoax got completely lost somewhere. I don't think many people caught on to that particular tail end of the story. So in that regard, the show failed in its goal (at least this far from Holland), which IMO further makes it doubtful that the show's means can be justified. I myself believe that no matter the current outrage,the show opened many people's minds and their subconscious selves to the
possibility of an actual, for-real donor reality show. Putting that into people's minds, getting the general public used to the very idea of such a show, will increase the possibility that next time, the show will in fact
*be* real. So personally I do not think that this publicity stunt should have been carried out. However, I do hope that at least it served to get people to sign up as potential donors locally.