Main description:

Richard Titmuss (1907-1973) was a pioneer in the field of social administration (now social policy). In this reissued classic, listed by the New York Times as one of the 10 most important books of the year when it was first published in 1970, he compares blood donation in the US and UK, contrasting the British system of reliance on voluntary donors to the American one in which the blood supply is in the hands of for-profit enterprises, concluding that a system based on altruism is both safer and more economically efficient.
Titmuss's argument about how altruism binds societies together has proved a powerful tool in the analysis of welfare provision. His analysis is even more topical now in an age of ever changing health care policy and at a time when health and welfare systems are under sustained attack from many quarters.

Contents:

New introduction;
Introduction: human blood and social policy;
The transfusion of blood;
The demand for blood in England and Wales and the United States;
The supply of blood in England and Wales and the United States;
The gift;
The characteristics of blood donors in the United States;
The characteristics of blood donors in England and Wales;
Is the gift a good one?;
Blood and the law of the marketplace;
Blood donors in the former Soviet Union and other countries;
A study of blood donor motivation in South Africa;
Economic man: social man;
Who is my stranger?;
The right to give.