I’ve done this, and it is as easy as atorm says it is. I’ve also been the beneficiary of stem cell donation: my mother is currently alive and has a normal life expectancy after receiving a transplant that cured her of leukemia. She would otherwise have died within months of her diagnosis. Some years after her transplant, she was able to correspond with her stem cell donor, who told her that the donation was as simple as going to his local hospital and having his blood drawn. (These days, an agonizing, old-fashioned bone marrow transplant is rarely if ever necessary.) A cheap and easy source of utilons, indeed.
EDIT: this is especially worth doing if (as is apparently the case for another few days) a corporate sponsor has agreed to pay for the testing (but not to donate the same sum to the charity of your choice). If donors have to pay for their own testing, as is normally the case, I’m not claiming that this is necessarily a better use of the money than donating to some other charity. When I signed up, it was being paid for by my university.
I’ve done this, and it is as easy as atorm says it is. I’ve also been the beneficiary of stem cell donation: my mother is currently alive and has a normal life expectancy after receiving a transplant that cured her of leukemia. She would otherwise have died within months of her diagnosis. Some years after her transplant, she was able to correspond with her stem cell donor, who told her that the donation was as simple as going to his local hospital and having his blood drawn. (These days, an agonizing, old-fashioned bone marrow transplant is rarely if ever necessary.) A cheap and easy source of utilons, indeed.
EDIT: this is especially worth doing if (as is apparently the case for another few days) a corporate sponsor has agreed to pay for the testing (but not to donate the same sum to the charity of your choice). If donors have to pay for their own testing, as is normally the case, I’m not claiming that this is necessarily a better use of the money than donating to some other charity. When I signed up, it was being paid for by my university.