Psychologists have found similar co

Psychologists have found similar conflicts between financial incentives and moral or altruistic conduct in other areas. Philosopher Peter Singer has elaborated on this point in the case of blood: If blood is a commodity with a price, to give blood means merely to save someone money. Blood has a cash value of a certain number of dollars, and the importance of the gift will vary with the wealth of the recipient. If blood cannot be bought, however, the gift’s value depends upon the need of the recipient. Often, it will be worth life itself. Under these circumstances blood becomes a very special kind of gift, and giving it means providing for strangers, without hope of reward, something they cannot buy and without which they may die. The gift relates strangers in a manner that is not possible when blood is a commodity. This may sound like a philosopher’s abstraction, far removed from the thoughts of ordinary people.