NationStates

[desc] The death of long-time blood donor @@RANDOMNAME@@, whose regular blood contributions had saved dozens of @@DENONYMPLURAL@@ over the years, has sparked public outrage. @@HE@@ had apparently lost a lot of blood after being injured in a duel with someone at a Harry Potter convention, and could not be saved due to a temporary lack of @@HIS@@ universal donor blood type. Other blood donors are threatening to stop donating blood unless the government prioritizes donors for blood transfusion.

[validity] Only valid for nations that selected 027.1, 191.3, 260.3 (Blood donation optional) and are not class nations

[option] "We must be placed at the front of the queue for receiving blood!" demands @@RANDOMNAME@@, a furious donor, waving @@HIS@@ donor card in your face. "At least half of the blood that us donors have given should be reserved for our future use. That way, we will feel secure when donating blood, knowing that some of it will return to us when we are in need. Who knows? More people might even be encouraged to join with such an incentive."
[effect] patients who haven't donated blood regularly are often left to die

[option] "Why do we have to give any of our blood to others at all?" questions @@RANDOMNAME@@, another donor, barging into your office. "It's my blood, and I should be able to do whatever I want with it. You should build a national blood bank that actually functions like a real bank, where deposited blood belongs to, and only to the depositor. I'm certain that people would be willing to fork out substantial sums of money to safeguard their own stock of blood, so it would be an easy source of revenue for the government. Blood could also be sold to others who need it, like those with blood disorders. That's something that I can get behind."
[effect] the wealthy regularly outbid impoverished patients of blood they genuinely need

[option] "How selfish! It is a mistake to restrict the supply of fresh blood, especially to those who have a use for it," sneers @@RANDOMFIRSTNAME@@ Báthory, an elderly hematologist, while sipping from a glass of red liquid and squinting in the dim light of your room. "My experiments on mice have shown that older mice are physically and mentally rejuvenated when they are injected with blood from younger mice. There is no reason to think that this wouldn't work with people as well. You should make it mandatory for minors to donate blood- not just for patients, but for the elderly too. This way, we will have a much healthier populace." @@HE@@ smiles, flashing what appear to be fangs.
[effect]@@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ teenagers are regularly harvested for blood

[option validity] Only valid for nations with food from vats
[option] "Let's just repurpose most of our vats to purely produce universal donor type blood," mutters @@RANDOMNAME@@, an exhausted vat operator, still holding a ladle in @@HIS@@ hand. "It may force us to divert our resources from producing food for our citizens, but it's still better than forcibly extracting blood from children or allowing patients to perish. Well, it's been nice talking to you, but I've got to get back to work."
[effect] the price of meat has skyrocketed as vats are repurposed to produce blood instead

[option validity] Only valid for nations with organs or humans from vats
[option] "Let's just repurpose most of our vats to purely produce universal donor type blood," mutters @@RANDOMNAME@@, an exhausted vat operator, still holding a wrench in @@HIS@@ hand. "It may force us to divert our resources from producing important organs and whatnot, but it's still better than forcibly extracting blood from children or allowing patients to perish. Well, it's been nice talking to you, but I've got to get back to work."
[effect] deaths from organ failure are rising as vats are repurposed to purely produce blood

[option validity] Only valid for nations without vats
[option] "There's no need to do something so abhorrent," posits @@RANDOMNAME@@, a renowned biochemist, still holding a beaker from @@HIS@@ last experiment. "After years of research, I have managed to invent viable synthetic blood. The synthetic blood I made can be used by citizens of all blood types, and it is relatively inexpensive to produce. While it may significantly increase the chance of heart attacks, it's better than forcibly extracting blood from children or allowing patients to perish."
[effect] government-approved synthetic blood has been cited as the leading cause of heart attacks

Does artificial blood actually cause heart-attacks and prevent excersize?

Australian Republic wrote:Does artificial blood actually cause heart-attacks and prevent excersize?

They increase the chance of heart attacks. Current synthetic blood cannot even properly carry dissolved oxygen as of now, thus I concluded that exercise would be difficult if there was insufficient real blood. Might be a bit of a stretch, I could remove that.

Singapore no2 wrote:[desc] The death of long-time blood donor, @@RANDOMNAME@@, whose regular blood contributions had saved dozens of @@DENONYMPLURAL@@ over the years, has sparked public outrage. @@HIS@@ demise, attributed to severe blood loss, could not be remedied due to a temporary lack of @@HIS@@ rare blood type.

You should specify what caused the blood loss.

As it reads, it could be interpreted as dying from trying to donate more blood than his body is capable of handling, which would speak rathe poorly of the competence of the doctors involved.

If you intended for it to just be a generic bloody incident that coincidentally happened to a former blood donor, you should be clearer about that. (Though even then, for example, an accident happening shortly after you donated blood could add up to be more lethal than either one separately.)

Singapore no2 wrote:[effect] government approved synthetic blood has been cited as the leading cause of heart attacks

"government-approved"

Australian Republic wrote:Does artificial blood actually cause heart-attacks and prevent excersize?

Singapore no2 wrote:They increase the chance of heart attacks. Current synthetic blood cannot even properly carry dissolved oxygen as of now, thus I concluded that exercise would be difficult if there was insufficient real blood. Might be a bit of a stretch, I could remove that.

This is where NationStates canon might get in the way. Considering issue-established technology includes the ability to grow replacement organs and even entire people in vats, we can probably manage synthetic blood that's biologically authentic, rather than a mere substitute.

Unfortunately, that would be too much of an obviously-right option.

That vat issue's always causing problems, isn't it?

Singapore no2 wrote:[desc] The death of long-time blood donor, @@RANDOMNAME@@, whose regular blood contributions had saved dozens of @@DENONYMPLURAL@@ over the years, has sparked public outrage. @@HIS@@ demise, attributed to severe blood loss, could not be remedied due to a temporary lack of @@HIS@@ rare blood type. Other blood donors are threatening to stop donating blood unless the government prioritises donors for blood transfusion.

[validity] Only valid for nations that selected 027.1, 191.3, 260.3 (Blood donation optional)

[option] "We must be placed at the front of the queue for receiving blood!" demands @@RANDOMNAME@@, a furious donor, waving @@HIS@@ donor card in your face. "At least half of the blood that us donors have given should be reserved for our future use. That way, we will feel secure when donating blood, knowing that some of it will return to us when we are in need. Who knows, more people might even be encouraged to join with such an incentive."
[effect] patients who don't donate blood regularly are often left to die

[option] "This shows that we must make blood donation compulsory!" claims @@RANDOMNAME@@, a blood bank administrator, while sipping from a glass of red liquid. "You can't seriously expect the majority of our citizens to be generous enough to provide blood of their own accord. In the rare event where we completely run out of blood, we should not be afraid to take blood from the elderly or even children."
[effect] the government sees children as a literal source of fresh blood

[option] "There's no need to do something so abhorrent," posits @@RANDOMNAME@@, a renowned biochemist, still holding a beaker from @@HIS@@ last experiment. "After years of research, I have managed to invent viable synthetic blood. The synthetic blood I made can be used by citizens of all blood types, and it is relatively inexpensive to produce. While it may significantly increase the chance of heart attacks and render patients unable to exercise, it's better than forcibly extracting blood from children or allowing patients to perish."
[effect] government approved synthetic blood has been cited as the leading cause of heart attacks

Nice issue, but I am not sure about the premise.

And I think this is because there are two intertwined problems here.

First, we want to discuss whether we should give a priority to former donors when they need a blood transfusion.

But then, this guy died mainly because his blood type was very rare, right? If it had been a common blood type, there would be no such problem.

And I guess one possible solution to the scarcity of donated blood of a rare type could be to require that doctors do not waste the blood of universal donors (O Rh-) on universal recipients who could receive blood from anyone (AB Rh+). This could also have undesirable consequences, because even though we are taught in school that O Rh- type blood can be given to everyone and that AB Rh+ people can receive blood from everyone, I've heard that this is not a safe bet; though Candlewhisper Archive could explain this better, of course.

But I think these are two different lines of discussion, and I guess it would be better if you focused on just one. (So you may want to omit the part where you say that the guy died because his blood type was rare. Sometimes people may be unable to find blood for you, even if your blood type is common, perhaps after a natural disaster or a terrorist attack after which the hospitals are filled with injured people who need blood transfusion.)

Also, your second option reminds me of this creepy news article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... -old-mice/

I think the speaker in this option should be a pale and old person, who has a fang or something and then s/he must suggest that old people should regularly get blood from the young to be rejuvenated. Maybe something like the following:

[option]"It is a mistake to think only former donors or injured people need fresh blood," sneers @@RANDOMFIRSTNAME@@ Dracula, an elderly hematologist, while sipping from a glass of red liquid and squinting in the dim light of your room. "My research has shown that mice are physically and mentally rejuvenated when they are injected with blood specimens drawn from younger mice. There is no reason why the same shouldn't be true for humans. You should make it mandatory for minors to donate blood, not only for sick people, but also the elderly. In this way, we will have a much healthier populace." @@HE@@ smiles, letting you wonder whether you just caught a glimpse of a fang.
[effect]@@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ teenagers are regularly harvested for blood

Hey, I know this is too wordy, but you could abridge it and use it - if you want to, of course

I think this issue definitely calls for a vampire speaker!

This is great. I don't really see any problems, unfortunately for you.

Frieden-und Freudenland wrote:But then, this guy died mainly because his blood type was very rare, right? If it had been a common blood type, there would be no such problem.

And I guess one possible solution to the scarcity of donated blood of a rare type could be to require that doctors do not waste the blood of universal donors (O Rh-) on universal recipients who could receive blood from anyone (AB Rh+).

Well, I assume the point is that the donor couldn't be saved because all suitable blood had already been used up to save a non-blood-donor with the same rare blood type who just happened to be injured around the same time by a fluke.

Trying to save valuable blood types for when you need them is just common sense, I would expect the doctors to have already been doing that anyway. But if several people with the same inconvenient blood type get hurt around the same time, that won't help.

You do make a good point that "difficult to find a transfusion for" does not necessarily equate "rare". A universal recipient would be easy to find transfusions for even if that blood type itself were very rare, while (to a lesser degree) a universal donor would be tricky to find transfusions for even if that blood type were relatively common. (I am pretty sure that which blood types occurs in which percentages varies by ethnicity, so "common" and "rare" are relative, too. There's always going to be at least one problem patient, though.)

Frieden-und Freudenland wrote:@@RANDOMFIRSTNAME@@ Dracula

Bathory.

Vats are now accounted for. Sort of.

Bump

Hello again, Sig#2.

I got in an issue reviewing kinda mood and I felt like homing in on your drafts, I guess.

The Issue:

The death of long-time blood donor, @@RANDOMNAME@@, [...] over the years,

I think the comma after donor is unnecessary.

@@HE@@ had apparently lost a lot of blood after being injured in a duel with someone at a Harry Potter convention,

I don't even want to know how that happened...

and could not be saved due to a temporary lack of his universal donor blood type.

The over-exaggerated text should be @@HIS@@.
Also, Idk if "universal" should belong in there or not: I'm not too familiar with blood.

prioritises donors for blood transfusion.

prioritizes*

Validity: I might also ask that this is an adults-only issue, given the rather bloody subject at hand.
That being said, if the only issues it follows are adult-only issues anyways, then idk if that'd even be necessary.

Option 1:

Who knows, more people

Grammatically a question mark after knows would be more proper, although I'm personally not too sure if that'd be necessary.

patients who don't donate blood regularly are often left to die

Maybe don't donate should be haven't donated?
After all, it's hard to donate blood if you're currently the patient in need of it.
Option 2:

You should make it mandatory for minors to donate blood, not just for patients, but for the elderly too.

Aside from this option being horrifying, I think a hyphen after blood may work better than a comma.

All varients of option 3 look good, to me.

I might also add that there's no option to simply dismiss the idea that blood donors donate blood to help others, and not themselves.
I personally think it'd be a better 2nd option, and the current second option might work better as 3(pushing 3 to 4).

Aside from being a rather queasy topic, I think this looks very good! (as usual, of course)
Good luck, Sig#2.

In fact, if you could find a way to make what's currently option 2 instead an option 4, I think that'd do nicely,
but if you can't, I think it can work as-is.

Also, issue #003 might ban Harry Potter, so consider either changing the description a little or somehow adding that as a validity?

Jutsa wrote:I might also add that there's no option to simply dismiss the idea that blood donors donate blood to help others, and not themselves.
Aside from being a rather queasy topic, I think this looks very good! (as usual, of course)
Good luck, Sig#2.

Option added, changes effected.

Thanks for the input, Jutsa!

Jutsa wrote:Also, issue #003 might ban Harry Potter, so consider either changing the description a little or somehow adding that as a validity?

Eh... People can still be fans of stuff that are banned.

Even then, I was actually doing that as a reference to Issue 788, "Duel Purposes", (that is by me), which has Harry Potter conventions being monitored for dueling. I don't think that the effect tracks Harry Potter book burning.

I thought that it would be humorous to make a self-reference.

I like the idea of making blood banks actual banks...

It isn't quite what I had at mind, where blood just gets sent to the first person who needs it,
but it's certainly an interesting option. I'll leave it for an editor or something to hammer out the details: It otherwise looks fine to me.
Oh - except this: I hear @@DENONYMADJECTIVE@@ is just @@DENONYM@@, although I also hear editors replace macros anyways.

Jutsa wrote:I like the idea of making blood banks actual banks...

It isn't quite what I had at mind, where blood just gets sent to the first person who needs it,
but it's certainly an interesting option. I'll leave it for an editor or something to hammer out the details: It otherwise looks fine to me.
Oh - except this: I hear @@DENONYMADJECTIVE@@ is just @@DENONYM@@, although I also hear editors replace macros anyways.

I'll let them hammer that out to their heart's content.