The Blood Debate and Altruism

In 1971, Richard Titmuss, professor at the London School of Economics, published The Gift Relationship, a study of blood-collection systems throughout the world.’ The book contrasted American dependence on market sources for blood with Britain’s fully voluntary system.

The book attracted wide attention among social scientists and was discussed in print by Kenneth Arrow, Robert Solow, and Nathan Galzer. Each praised highly Titmuss’s expose of the inefficiency of the American system: the wastage caused by lack of planning and centralized administration, the hoarding of blood by hospitals, the high incidence of disease caused by commercially acquired blood. These reviewers, however, were less enthusiastic ...