One Nation Says No To Free Trade in Blood Products 4/8/2006
One Nation Says No To Free Trade in Blood Products
Under the US Free Trade Agreement, the Commonwealth Government is obliged to recommend to the States and Territories that Commonwealth Serum Laboratories should face competition from overseas companies for blood plasma processing, "fractionation", when its contract ends in 2009.
This means that because of the ridiculous doctrine of "free" trade, besides cars, food, manufactures, garments and everything else we now import, though we are quite capable of making it here, we will have to import blood products processed in, or even sourced from - who knows where?
According to ABC Radio's PM program of 14th July the Medical Journal of Australia has published research saying this could lead to a greater risk of contamination.
In Australia we have rigorous screening of donors, and they give their blood voluntarily. Having blood products sent overseas for processing could mean they get contaminated with plasma from donors who have been paid to give it and were less rigorously tested.
We all know unilateral free trade is economic insanity, but who would have thought our Government would even consider extending it to the most basic unit of life?
How would you feel lying on a operating table, about to be anaesthetised and cut open, and knowing you were going to be given blood products that were processed on the other side of the world because it was cheaper?
It is to be hoped that media exposure will put an end to this lunacy.