Originally Posted by jbwade

I am posting this in this forum as I don't see a forum for legal and ethical discussions.

Blood does not fall under the same standards as other healthcare products. Blood Banks and fractionators enjoy protection under special laws that shield them from prosecution and law suit on the basis of product liability. These blood shield laws were instituted because from the beginning blood transfusions exposed patients to risks that were so great that banked blood would not have stayed on the market.

Without these blood shield laws the nation’s blood bank system would have been crippled or ruined by the 1980-85 blood transfusion related HIV transmissions. Note what happened in Canada. Canada assigned a special judge and panel (Krever Commission- http://www.aidslaw.ca/Maincontent/o...ril1995/312.htm) to investigate the blood system and recommend changes to the blood bank system. Because of that Canada revamped its blood banking system AND the door was opened for blood resistance (bloodless, blood management) programs. No such pressure here in the United States.

With the high number of transfusion related Hep C cases these laws are coming under challenge.


Interesting thoughts Jan. Thanks for your posting of this topic. Legal ramifications concerning blood transfusions would certainly cause the beliegered
States institute their own shield laws. To deepen your research I recommend searching Google under Blood Shield Law by state. In the mean time here are a few links.
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Medline - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...s=11571894&dopt

J Health Law. 2001 Summer;34(3):419-58.

Rethinking blood shield statutes in view of the hepatitis C pandemic and other emerging threats to the blood supply.

Rueda A.

ruedaa_andres@hotmail.com

Researchers have identified at least twenty-five pathogens that can be transmitted through blood transfusions. Four percent of patients who receive the average amount of blood during a transfusion are at risk of being infected with a contaminated unit, and exposed to the danger of serious adverse reactions, including future debilitating conditions. Victims of transfusion-related diseases, however, generally have been unsuccessful when making claims against the purveyors of blood products because of blood shield statutes that were initially enacted in response to unknown pathogens that made the blood an "unavoidably unsafe" product. Today, blood purveyors are aware of the possibility of epidemics from unsafe blood and have continued to research and supervise the blood supply to create mechanisms that detect and inactivate various blood-borne pathogens. In response to the current and advancing methods of blood purification, this Article suggests that a hybrid strict liability/negligence standard be implemented to ensure advancements in safety of blood transfusions. A strict liability standard should attach for infections that can be detected and eliminated through current testing and inactivation methods. A negligence standard should govern infections for which no current test or inactivating method is available. Under this approach, blood purveyors would be compelled to take account of the risks of any manufacturing decisions that they make, and they would not enjoy the freedom from liability that the blood shield statutes now provide. The costs necessary to ensure compliance with this hybrid structure are small in comparison to the social and economic costs exacted by thousands of transfusion-related diseases.

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Washington State (not a sale…a service) - http://www.mrsc.org/mc/courts/supre...114wn2d0042.htm
Illinois (interesting and hopeful precedent set) - http://www.atla.org/courts/amicus/anews12.aspx
Louisiana - http://www.jwlaw.com/db30/cgi-bin/p...l18.htm#chauvin
New York - http://www.napolikaiser.com/article230.cfm
Florida - http://www.aegis.com/news/ap/2002/AP020750.html
Minnesota and Florida - http://www.aegis.com/news/wsj/1992/WJ920802.html
California - http://litigationcenter.bna.com/pic...WL?OpenDocument
General - http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite.jsp?doc=2098.2c4f
http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/InSite.jsp?doc=2098.2852
http://www.hepcompensation.com/HepC_justice.htm
Tainted Blood from Prisoners - http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1999/2/15/94906