James Harrison, blood donor whose rare plasma saved millions of babies, dead at 88
Harrison, whose plasma contained a “rare and precious antibody” known as Anti-D, donated blood more than 1,100 times, according to Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, which confirmed his death in a statement published Saturday.
Anti-D is used to make a medication administered to pregnant mothers whose blood would attack their unborn babies’ blood cells, known as rhesus disease.
The condition develops when a pregnant woman has rhesus-negative blood (RhD negative) and the baby in her womb has rhesus-positive blood (RhD positive), inherited from its father.
Considered a national hero, Harrison won numerous awards for his generosity, including the Medal of the Order of Australia, one of the country’s highest honors.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/03/healt...index.html
Harrison, whose plasma contained a “rare and precious antibody” known as Anti-D, donated blood more than 1,100 times, according to Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, which confirmed his death in a statement published Saturday.
Anti-D is used to make a medication administered to pregnant mothers whose blood would attack their unborn babies’ blood cells, known as rhesus disease.
The condition develops when a pregnant woman has rhesus-negative blood (RhD negative) and the baby in her womb has rhesus-positive blood (RhD positive), inherited from its father.
Considered a national hero, Harrison won numerous awards for his generosity, including the Medal of the Order of Australia, one of the country’s highest honors.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/03/healt...index.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
