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Blood For Extra Credit Points Offer Raises Eyebrows In Test-Mad China

Posted by samzenpus on from the bloody-report-card dept.

An anonymous reader writes Parents in China's Zhejiang province can give their own blood to earn some extra points on their child's high school entrance exam. Four liters of donated blood will get your child one extra point; 6 liters adds two points; and 8 liters, three. From the article: "The policy burst into the national limelight this week, when a Weibo user posted a photo of a bandaged arm, saying, 'For my future child, I say one thing: Relax when you take the high school entrance exam. Your dad's already helped you gain points.' The post was widely shared. Though the user declined to be interviewed by China Real Time, he also clarified his original post, saying that he had in fact been giving blood since age 18."

2 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Re:4-8 LITERS?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Unless you're gay or bisexual in which case they don't really need the blood that much.

    I used to love donating, but I got tired of being treated badly by the staff. Being required to ask questions that had no public health benefit in order to donate blood. I could literally have unprotected anal sex with an HIV infect prostitute in exchange for drugs and I'd eventually be allowed to donate again, assuming I didn't contract anything. But have sex one time with a guy's husband who doesn't have any communicable disease and you're struck from the list for life.

    China is obviously a different culture and a different set of challenges, but if the blood banks in the US need blood that badly, perhaps joining the 21st century and stop turning down qualified blood donors would help.

  2. Good! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hi all,

    Medical student here. Two points:

    1) This happens in the USA as well; my upper division undergraduate biology courses ALL offered extra credit in exchange for blood donation (or proof of rejection by blood collection centers), though in this case by the students themselves. For minors, substituting donation by the parents makes sense.
    2) There is a desperate need for blood donation. Blood substitutes don't work nearly as well as the real thing. As with organ donations, there is far more demand than supply. It saves lives.

    Personally, I think the net effect is positive. Linking an important but undervalued action (blood donation) to a highly valued outcome (university admission scores) makes sense.
    With the caveat that the execution is well thought out - eg, easy access to donation such as on-site donation drive timed with normal parent activities; award of points to students who can document their inability to donate or parents' unwillingness to donate, with documentation no more onerous to obtain than donation; limiting of effect on score to be more symbolic than a strong determinant of admissions; other things that further consideration would bring out.

    I see some highly moderated comments on here building up straw men and then knocking them down. Good job guys.
    "Slippery slope" - yeah, it's the name of a logical fallacy for a reason.