title: [Blood transfusion: history ethic and law].
abstract: The paper outlines the stages of the history of blood transfusion from the earlier attempts and difficulties to the important discoveries of the early XX century and to recent developments, that have made blood transfusion an easy life-saving method. The authors also examine the ethical motivations underlying transfusion refusal as well as the economical measures of solidarity contained in the Italian law n. 210/1992 to protect HIV HCV or HBV patients, especially those having contracted infection because of mandatory vaccinations or infected blood transfusions.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Legale, II Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", I. paola.frati@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Frati
authors.forename: Gianluca Montanari
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Vergallo
authors.forename: Natale Mario
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Di Luca
mesh_terms: D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000941:ethics / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy