[Not-for-profit: A report from the fourth annual symposium of ethics held by the National Institute for Blood Transfusion (France)]. / À propos du non-profit : rapport du quatrième symposium annuel d'éthique transfusionnelle de l'Institut national de la transfusion sanguine.

The not-for-profit issue has been debated in November 2016 in Paris; this issue is one of the four canonical pillars of ethical blood donation. It is intimately bound to benevolence though it is distinct, as not-for-profit calls for institutions while benevolence calls for individuals. It is indeed intended that voluntary blood donors do not benefit from their donation and are thus non-remunerated. Not-for-profit is essential since it refers to the public character of blood as a putative public resource aimed at being shared as a tribute of solidarity. A central question however is linked to the capacity- or not -of public sectors to ensure that blood components are universally available, with special mention to plasma derived drugs, without the contribution of the for profit, private sector.

[Blood components: Are they drugs or special medicines?]. / Les produits sanguins thérapeutiques : des médicaments ou des produits de santé à part ?

Blood transfusion and plasma derived-drugs significantly differ from other medicines in that their availability strictly depends on blood and plasma collected from healthy donors. Blood collection must comply with a double objective: to maintain donor heath safety, and to avoid any transmitted infections in recipients. This raises several ethical concerns that appear to be different from usual ethical and deontological issues linked to other pharmaceutical and industrial processes. The main concern is the non-commercialization of the human body. Words and concept are of major importance in this context. This short review aims at presenting the main issues relevant to those questions with respect to the various stakeholders.