ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on a well-defended account of exploitation to assess the widespread claim that donors who accept compensation for their plasma are thereby exploited. It arrives at surprising results. It first concludes that the commercial plasma centers that currently operate in the United States and Europe that offer compensation to their donors do not thereby exploit them. It also leads to the striking conclusion that plasma centers that operate in situations where donor compensated is prohibited exploit some of their donors. The moral concern to avoid donor exploitation should thus lead one to encourage donor compensation and oppose its prohibition. These conclusions are then defended against the charge that they are merely a function of a particular account of exploitation by showing that other accounts of exploitation (e.g., that of John Locke and Karl Max) arrive at similar conclusions.
