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Beth Rabkin, JD
LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby and MacRae Salt Lake City

Michael S. Rabkin, MD, PhD
University of Utah Medical Center Salt Lake City

JAMA. 1987;257(6):779-780.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In Reply.—

We are grateful to Drs Gettinger and Polesky and Ms Lentz for their additions and clarifications. Rhode Island, rather than New Hampshire, is the fifth state whose legislature has not yet made blood transfusion a service. Apologies to practitioners in Rhode Island and New Hampshire for the error.

The Minnesota case seems to lend additional support to our fundamental point that blood is no longer treated as though it were a consumer product, where defects automatically give rise to legal liability. Note, however, that the Balkowitsch case was decided prior to the case of Cunningham v MacNeal Memorial Hospital¹—the leading case that imposed liability in spite of the unavailability of screening tests for hepatitis—and that the analysis of Balkowitsch and cases cited in Balkowitsch was expressly rejected in Cunningham as "simply unrealistic."¹ Furthermore, the decision in Balkowitsch has been interpreted by at least one court . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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