Autologous transfusion should be recognized by patients and physicians as an important measure to provide safer transfusion therapy. This should be suggested to patients in general good health (who are not obviously frail) who have no significant medical problems and no likelihood of severe reaction, who can take iron supplements, and who have at least a 10% chance of using blood during surgery or are having surgery in which the average use is one or more units. Such patients should receive iron supplementation beginning 1 week before the first autologous donation, and should donate one to five units on a weekly basis, but no more frequently than every 72 hours, with their last unit donated 72 hours before surgery. Elderly individuals may donate if the risk of donor reaction seems low. In children and adults, the amount of blood removed should be reduced in proportion to the blood volume if the individual does not meet the standard weight of 50 kg for a 450-mL donation. "Fail-safe" identification systems should be used; these will insure that the correct donor/patient receives the transfusion. Processing of the units is preferred but still optional. Use of these units as homologous units should not be done unless the donor has a hematocrit level acceptable to an autologous donor, meets all the criteria for recipient safety, the unit is processed and negative for all viral markers, and the donor has recently (eg, within 3 years) participated in the volunteer donor program. The unit should be transfused to the patient in situations in which homologous blood would be indicated. Safeguards to prevent volume overload are needed when the unit is stored as whole blood. Future research objectives should include the use of recombinant erythropoietin to prevent donation-induced anemia, delineation of medical conditions which should contraindicate the donation, and determination of the real costs involved in autologous transfusion. Education of the general public, patients, and physicians about the desirability of autologous transfusion should proceed. Third-party carriers also need to be educated about the cost implications and the need to pay for this activity. However, such education should also stress that autologous units will only cover planned, elective surgery and that major blood needs for emergency surgery, trauma, and chronic transfusion will still need to be met by homologous blood from altruistic community blood donors.