Cry Bloody Murder:: A Tale of Tainted Blood

DePrince lost two of her five children to AIDS. They contracted the virus from blood products they needed to keep their hemophilia under control. Here, DePrince credibly contends that the four large U.S. pharmaceutical companies that manufacture clotting-factor concentrates used to treat hemophilia had access to techniques capable of inactivating any HIV in their products years before they employed these techniques. She also argues that profit motive and backscratching between government regulatory agencies and industry were to blame for the delay. Over 12,000 hemophilia sufferers became HIV-positive by April 1986, when a safe clotting factor was made available in the U.S. The factor consisted of an ingredient ""that had been available to European hemophiliacs for more than half a decade."" Although DePrince relies on interviews and documentation to build her case, she strikes a more intimate tone in the autobiographical passages here, even including the writings of her deceased children. At times her shifts from the personal to the political are jarring, but nowhere does the reader lose the thread of her arguments or for a moment doubt her passion. DePrince's account of her battles with the regulators and pharmaceutical establishment will resonate far beyond the personal confines of her struggle. (July)