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No, not very much.

But it was basically government-sanctioned, in a way. Or government approved. I mean, who gave the Red Cross that responsibility?

Well, we had to live by the standards. Not only our own standards, but we had to comply with the blood-banking standards that were insisted upon by the federal government- -because there were commercial blood banks that had to come under that. So we were all in that same set of standards. But we operated independently of the government--got no money from the government, got no help from the government at all in those places where we collected blood.

And we had a very sophisticated computer system of keeping track of everything that we had. For example, if you had a certain type that you needed in Chattanooga and you didn't have that type, we knew where those types of blood were stored. It's a complex program, and in my book it should be all Red Cross or it should be all government. The private, commercial blood-banking people should not be in it.

And if you ever need blood, approach it very cautiously. Be sure your source is family or your own blood that you've put in the bank yourself--because with what's happened with AIDS-- you've just read the story of what happened in Switzerland. This sanctimonious, high- standard, wonderful Swiss organization got caught with infected blood, and I never thought that the Swiss ever get involved in that kind of thing. I say “get involved.” It certainly wasn't by design. But they didn't have tough enough standards, that's all.