Book Review: Blood Money

Kathleen McLaughlin, Blood Money: the Story of Life, Death, and Profit Inside America's Blood Industry. New York: One Signal Publishers, 2023.  ISBN: 9781982171964.

 Genre: health, medical, blood and plasma

Subgenre: bad economy, sociology, socioeconomic conditions, United States, inequality

Format: Hardcover

Source: Hutchins Library, Berea College 

"Like a vampire, you have the people's blood on your hands.

Blind to their suffering, deaf to their sharp words, 

The gully of greed can never be filled." 

--Dr. Gao Yaoji, Chinese doctor and activist. (12).

 

This book is a serious look at the blood trade industry in the United States, mainly focused on the blood plasma trade. The business is a juggernaut in the United States, one of the very few countries that allow payment for plasma donations, yet many Americans are blissfully unaware of its reach and range. That is unless you are one of the millions of Americans who donate plasma for a variety of economic reasons. It is always for economic reasons. The author in her research found that the altruistic reason to donate plasma in the United States was nice, but the primary driver to donate plasma was the money, pure and simple. That is how the system is designed. 

The book includes a prologue, 16 chapters, and an epilogue. The author starts looking at China's plasma industry, which was basically decimated by the HIV virus as it was rising. Then we move to the United States where they learned the lessons from China in terms of serious hygiene and safety protocols. The United States then took the business above and beyond. The United States not only collects a lot of plasma; they supply it to other countries as well. As the author writes at one point, the United States is basically the OPEC of blood plasma. 

The author focuses on four key places as examples to illustrate her points: a small town in Mormon Country, Flint, Michigan, Texas and its exploitation of prison populations, and the U.S. and Mexico border at El Paso, Texas. In these places we get a good sampling of the reality of plasma in the U.S. The author travels not only as a researcher and journalist. She is also a patient who uses medication made from human plasma to treat a rare condition. 

The book is very engaging. This is not just a book about blood plasma. It is also a book about the bad economy in the United States, inequality, poverty, class, politics, health, and society. The blood plasma trade illustrates well the social ills of the United States. Many people were willing to speak to her about their experiences as donors, the companies not so much. She had to be a bit creative when researching the business side. The book offers a good reading pace. I found myself reading swiftly. It does suffer a bit from some repetitiveness. There are some points she just keeps hammering over and over. As reader, after a while I felt she needed to move on, the point is made, we get it. 

I'd still recommend the book for readers interested in health and medical topics, socioeconomics, especially in the United States, and business and corporate topics. I do recommend it for public and academic libraries. On our campus, I would recommend it for some of the general studies courses, nursing, sociology, and maybe a business class or two. On a side note, in my humble opinion, this could be an author to invite to campus for the convocations series. I will also note that, to be honest, I am a bit surprised our town does not have a plasma collection center given there are plenty of poor and not so poor who would be the ideal donor pool. Still, the topic and its broader implications could be of interest to at least some on campus. 

4 out of 5 stars. 

Additional reading notes: 

Some of the economics of blood plasma: 

"In 2021, American blood products accounted for more than $24 billion in worldwide sales and were 2.69 percent of the United States' total exports. That's a higher percentage than soybeans and several other crops that are sold overseas. A substantial portion of the blood plasma used all around the world comes from the veins of people in the United States" (27). 

 

How the system is designed and who it targets: 

"Selling plasma does not pay enough to live on; it pays just enough to fill the gas tank or the refrigerator. The practice targets the working class and people we like to call the 'working poor' -- often those who earn enough to live in permanent housing and own cars, but who are on the edge of having too little money to make everything flow just right" (29). 

 

The plasma industry exploits American inequality: 

"The plasma industry did not create the canyons of inequality; they were carved deep by existing streams of racism, classism, and regionalism. Bu the system does methodically exploit these ravines, geotargeting those most likely to suffer through some of the discomfort and potential fatigue in exchange for relatively easy money" (39-40).