Tainted Blood - The Gift of Death
| Hardcover Edition - 1995 | Updated Edition - 1998 |
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The Gift of Death:
Confronting Canada's Tainted Blood Tragedy
More than 3 million Canadians who received blood transfusions between 1980 and 1990 were unwilling participants in a lottery of death. Across the Country, at least 1200 people of all ages - hemophiliacs, new-born babies, surgery patients - were infected with the deadly AIDS virus and thousands more contracted the debilitating hepatitis C.
The Gift of Death is a shocking, deeply moving, often frightening analysis of the greatest preventable medical scandal in our history. André Picard unravels the vast story of tainted blood and dissects the country's blood system - examining the roles of government, the medical establishment, the pharmaceutical industry, donors, and patients. Drawing on the moving testimony of victims and family members at the Krever Inquiry, research in both Canada and abroad, and never before-published documents, he puts a human face on this tragic story of incompetence, prejudice, fear, greed - and unfathomable heartbreak.
How could a system born of charity become so uncaring and out-of-control? Why was AIDS-tainted blood knowingly distributed? How did the Red Cross become a multi-million dollar corporation? What compensation is due to victims? What new horrors await us in the future? Superbly researched and far-reaching in it's criticism, THE GIFT OF DEATH not only answers these troubling questions but proposes solutions, calling for radical redesign of our blood supply system to ensure that the tragedy of tainted blood is never repeated.
The Gift of Death:
Confronting Canada's Tainted Blood Tragedy
Updated Edition 1998
At least 2000 Canadians of all ages - hemophiliacs, new-born babies, surgery patients - were infected through blood transfusions with the deadly AIDS virus. Yet it took more than a decade for alarm bells to go off and investigations to begin.
The Gift of Death is a shocking, deeply moving, often frightening analysis of the greatest preventable medical scandal in our history. André Picard examines the roles of government, the medical establishment, the pharmaceutical industry, donors - and draws on the moving testimony of victims and family members.
This updated edition also examines the "second tainted-blood scandal", the infection of 60,000 transfusion recipients with the debilitating hepatitis C virus, and offers a definitive examination of the long-awaited Krever report.
