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Good Blood, Bad Blood, and the Market: The Gift Relationship Revisited*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Iain McLean  and
Jo Poulton
Iain McLean
Affiliation:
Politics, University College, Oxford
Jo Poulton
Affiliation:
Department of Paediatrics, Oxford University
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Abstract

The Gift Relationship (Titmuss, 1970) argued that the UK system of voluntary blood donation was economically, medically, and morally superior to the American system, in which many blood suppliers are paid. The argument was badly put and fiercely attacked, but substantially correct. Developments since Titmuss wrote, especially AIDS, have tragically reinforced his main point: more than half of the severe haemophiliacs in the UK have been infected with the AIDS virus, almost certainly through imported blood products. Titmuss's normative argument is reconstructed, and defended against neoclassical economists who have been his fiercest critics. Finally, policy implications are briefly discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , October 1986 , pp. 431 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

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