ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a notorious case of medical negligence and healthcare failure which marked the 1980s: the contaminated blood scandal. This case resulted in thousands of patients being infected with HIV and hepatitis C from using contaminated blood products provided by state authorities in several countries, including France and England and Wales. The rates of contamination in France and England and Wales were of comparable scale, and health authorities in both countries committed similar types of failings. In France, the episode led to three sets of criminal proceedings which involved blood centre directors, ministers and prescribing doctors being prosecuted for various criminal offences, whereas in England and Wales, the criminal process was not used successfully. The chapter demonstrates that some of the UK authorities’ failures justify the use of the criminal law, and it proposes ways in which this can be achieved, as a public inquiry is being conducted into the case in the UK.
