Blood Feuds: AIDS, Blood, and the Politics of Medical Disaster / Edition 1

by Eric Feldman, Ronald Bayer

Overview

In the mid-1980s public health officials in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia discovered that almost half of the hemophiliac population, as well as tens of thousands of blood transfusion recipients, had been infected with HIV-tainted blood. This book provides a comparative perspective on the political, legal, and social struggles that emerged in response to the HIV contamination of the blood supply of the industrialized world. It describes how eight nations responded to the first signs that AIDS might be transmitted through blood, how early efforts to secure the blood supply faltered, and what measures were ultimately implemented to resolve the contamination. The authors detail the remarkable mobilization of hemophiliacs who challenged the state, the medical establishment, and their own caregivers to seek recompense and justice. In the end, the blood establishments in almost all the advanced industrial nations were shaken. In Canada, the Red Cross was forced to withdraw from blood collection and distribution. In Japan, pharmaceutical firms that manufactured clotting factor agreed to massive compensation — $500,000 per hemophiliac infected. In France, blood officials went to prison. Even in Denmark, where the number of infected hemophiliacs was relatively small, the struggle and litigation surrounding blood has resulted in the most protracted legal and administrative conflict in modern Danish history. Blood Feuds brings together chapters on the experiences of the United States, Japan, France, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Italy, and Australia with four comparative essays that shed light on the cultural, institutional, and economic dimensions of the HIV/blood disaster.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195131604
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/18/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	9.21(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.17(d)

About the Author

Feldman, Eric A., JD, PhD (New York Univ); Bayer, Ronald, PhD (Columbia Univ)

Table of Contents

Part I: National Encounters with Blood and AIDS1. Introduction: Understanding the Blood Feuds, Ronald Bayer and Eric Feldman2. Blood and AIDS in America: Science, Politics, and the Making of an Iatrogenic Catastrophe, Ronald Bayer3. HIV and Blood in Japan: Transforming Private Conflict into Public Scandal, Eric Feldman4. The Nations Blood: Medicine, Justice, and the State in France, Monika Steffen5. From Trust to Tragedy: HIV / AIDS and the Canadian Blood System, Norbert Gilmore and Margaret Somerville6. The Never-Ending Story? The Political and Legal Controversies over HIV and the Blood Supply in Denmark, Erik Albaek7. Blood Scandal and AIDS in Germany, Stephan Dressler8. Blood, Bureaucracy and Law: Responding to the HIV-Tainted Blood in Italy, Umberto Izzo9. HIV-Contaminated Blood and Australian Policy: The Limits of Success, John BallardPart II: Comparative Perspectives on the Politics of Medical Disaster10. Cultural Perspectives on Blood, Dorothy Nelkin11. The Politics of Blood: Hemophilia Activism in the AIDS Crisis, David Kirp12. The Circulation of the Blood: AIDS, Blood and the Economics of Information, Sherry Glied13. Conclusion: The Comparative Politics of Contaminated Blood: From Hesitancy to Scandal, Theodore Marmor, Patricia Dillon, and Stephen Scher

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Judith W. Munson, JD (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Description: This book treats one aspect of the AIDS/HIV epidemic: the contamination of the blood supply. The editors present their topic and the plight of the victims of this aspect of the AIDS/HIV tragedy in two parts. The first part reviews in depth the response to the contamination of the blood supply in eight different countries. The second part is a series of chapters treating various issues discussed in the national cases comparatively .
Purpose: The purpose is to highlight the commonalities as well as the differences among the eight countries as they struggled with the conflicts of a blood supply contaminated by AIDS/HIV.
Audience: This book is written for a wide audience: teachers, students, politicians, lawyers, governmental officials, and blood industry workers, as well as the public at large, will find this book readable, informative, and definitive on the issues surrounding the tragedy of the contamination of the blood supply by AIDS/HIV in eight countries.
Features: The editors have compiled the eight national case studies by guiding each contributor's treatment of contamination of the blood supply and its impact on the hemophiliac populations and blood transfusion recipients by responding to a series of eleven questions and addressing five core issues. This results in a comprehensive picture of each country, readily comparable to the others.
Assessment: This book is a welcome addition to the library of anyone concerned about AIDS/HIV, the contamination of the blood supply, and the lessons that we can learn from this specific aspect of this world-wide epidemic. The contributors provide us with the opportunity to learn from the story of the way the developments were handled in our own country as well as those of the other countries covered. This is a unique contribution to the AIDS/HIV literature.

Doody's Review Service

3 Stars from Doody

This book treats one aspect of the AIDS/HIV epidemic: the contamination of the blood supply. The editors present their topic and the plight of the victims of this aspect of the AIDS/HIV tragedy in two parts. The first part reviews in depth the response to the contamination of the blood supply in eight different countries. The second part is a series of chapters treating various issues discussed in the national cases comparatively . The purpose is to highlight the commonalities as well as the differences among the eight countries as they struggled with the conflicts of a blood supply contaminated by AIDS/HIV. This book is written for a wide audience: teachers, students, politicians, lawyers, governmental officials, and blood industry workers, as well as the public at large, will find this book readable, informative, and definitive on the issues surrounding the tragedy of the contamination of the blood supply by AIDS/HIV in eight countries. The editors have compiled the eight national case studies by guiding each contributor's treatment of contamination of the blood supply and its impact on the hemophiliac populations and blood transfusion recipients by responding to a series of eleven questions and addressing five core issues. This results in a comprehensive picture of each country, readily comparable to the others. This book is a welcome addition to the library of anyone concerned about AIDS/HIV, the contamination of the blood supply, and the lessons that we can learn from this specific aspect of this world-wide epidemic. The contributors provide us with the opportunity to learn from the story of the way the developments were handled in our own country as well as those of the othercountries covered. This is a unique contribution to the AIDS/HIV literature.

Judith W. Munson

Contributors from law, political science, public health, and the medical sciences look at the legal and political dimensions of the infection of infusion-dependent people by HIV in the 1970s and 1980s. In particular they consider managing threats to blood safety; voluntarism, markets, and the supply of blood; safety and the ideology of self-sufficiency; justice and compensation for the victims of blood-borne pathogens; and blood, bureaucracy, and organizational reform. Paper edition (unseen), $29.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews