NEW BLOOD LAW

On January 1, 1990, California became the first state in the United States to enact a law requiring physicians and surgeons to inform their patients of the dangers of blood transfusions “whenever there is a possibility that a blood transfusion may be necessary as a result of a surgical procedure.” According to the new law, a patient should also be told in writing of both the dangers and the advantages of various alternatives to receiving someone else’s blood in a transfusion. Surgeons and physicians must make a note on the patient’s medical record that the patient was so informed. These measures do not apply, though, when what is said to be a “life threatening emergency” exists. Called The Paul Gann Blood Safety Act, the measure is named for a renowned crusader for tax reforms who died of AIDS he had got from a blood transfusion. According to his obituary in Time magazine, “Gann believed that people who knowingly transmit [AIDS] ‘should be tried for murder.’”

Hundreds of India’s professional blood sellers also carry the AIDS virus; yet many continue to sell their blood to make a living.