Legislative and Regulatory Impact on Transfusion Medicine Practice

The hysteria that continues to accompany the AIDS epidemic is unequalled in modern times for its medical, social, societal, ethical, legal and governemental impact. Globally, in transfusion medicine, highly respected physicians have been sent to jail, governments have altered longstanding legal protection afforded to blood banks, huge blood collecting organizations have been subjected to regulatory sanctions and the rights of individuals are stridently advocated. In the US where healthcare is not fully government-subsidized, the impact of transfusion-transmitted HIV is being played out with threats of huge monetary rewards in civil suits in the courtroom as well as through focused criticism of the government [1].