Linking medicine, industry, science, and politics: The history of French blood donor deferral criteria

Selection criteria for blood donors have existed since the beginnings of blood transfusion, but their form, shape, content, and objectives have been largely redefined since the 1950s. In France, this dynamic has been closely linked to a series of health crises, as has been presented in Chapter 4. Since the 1990s, those crises led to profound reforms in the organization and administration of public health (Benamouzig and Besançon 2005). Like other areas of public health, blood transfusion has not escaped this process, since - given the principle of "health safety" - modes of action and activities have been reoriented in line with a logic of preventing risks likely to harm the health of populations (Setbon 2004 ; Tabuteau 2002). (premier paragraphe