{"product_id":"blood-money-the-story-of-life-death-and-profit-inside-americas-blood-industry-9781982171971","title":"Blood Money: The Story of Life, Death, and Profit Inside America's Blood Industry","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \"haunting\" (Anne Helen Petersen, author of \u003ci\u003eCan't Even\u003c\/i\u003e) and deeply personal investigation of an underground for-profit medical industry and the American underclass it drains for blood and profit.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJournalist Kathleen McLaughlin knew she'd found a treatment that worked on her rare autoimmune disorder. She had no idea it had been drawn from the veins of America's most vulnerable. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSo begins McLaughlin's ten-year investigation researching and reporting on the $20-billion-a year business she found at the other end of her medication, revealing a \"vampiric real-life story of modern-day greed\" (Leah Sottile, host of \u003ci\u003eBundyville\u003c\/i\u003e). Assigned to work in China, where the plasma supply had been rocked by numerous scandals, McLaughlin hid American plasma in her luggage during trips between the two countries. And when she was warned by a Chinese researcher of troubling echoes between America's domestic plasma supply chain and the one she'd seen spin out into chaos in China, she knew she had to dig deeper. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlood Money\u003c\/i\u003e shares McLaughlin's decade-long mission to learn the full story of where her medicine comes from. She travels the United States in search of the truth about human blood plasma and learns that twenty million Americans each year sell their plasma for profit--a human-derived commodity extracted inside our borders to be processed and packaged for retail across the globe. She investigates the thin evidence pharmaceutical companies have used to push plasma as a wonder drug for everything from COVID-19 to wrinkled skin. And she unearths an American economic crisis hidden in plain sight: single mothers, college students, laid-off Rust Belt auto workers, and a booming blood market at America's southern border, where collection agencies target Mexican citizens willing to cross over and sell their plasma for substandard pay. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis \"captivating and anguished exposé\" (\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e) weaves together McLaughlin's personal battle to overcome illness while also facing her own complicity in this wheel of exploitation with an electrifying portrait of big business run amok.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Atria\/One Signal Publishers\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/30\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781982171971\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.51lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.38h x 5.50w x 0.60d","brand":"Kathleen McLaughlin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43378457510069,"sku":"9781982171971","price":16.14,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_2e4827f2-dfc3-4f3f-83e2-90839d9e035c.jpg?v=1701754789","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/blood-money-the-story-of-life-death-and-profit-inside-americas-blood-industry-9781982171971","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}