Blood donation ban for men who have slept with men

Remove all ads!

I've recently signed a petition against the ban that says that a man who has had intercourse with another man at any time in his life may never donate blood.

This is stupid. There are people out there that are desperate for blood transfusions but there isn't enough supply to meet demand. People can die because of this but the blood service has refused life saving donations because they think that every gay man in the world has HIV.

A person who goes out and has unprotected sex every night is welcomed with open arms when they want to give blood yet a man who had a gay experiance 40 years ago is turned away. It's not right at all.

This attitude is promoting the image that all gay men are promiscious and always have unsafe sex and it's REALLY annoying me!

 

How ridiculous. I thought we were past this kind of rubbish.

 

Taluntain, the ban was put in place back when AIDS (Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) was was still more often known as GRID (gay-related immunodeficiency disease) and before we had a dependable and accurate HIV test. We now know that heterosexual sex also causes HIV and we also now have a quick, dependable, and accurate HIV test, so this ban serves no purpose. In fact, not allowing them to donate probably increases the rate at which HIV is transmitted, since anyone who donates tainted blood will ordinarily be notified and referred to medical treatment (and, more importantly, legally obligated to notify any potential sex partners of his infection).

 

Looking at the stats from the Center for Disease Control it appears that in 2006 57% of the HIV infections came from male to male intercourse (I'm also including the category of MtM including IV drug use). Now, I don't know what percentage of men actually participate in male to male intercourse, but I have frequently heard 10% is the number that homosexuals toss around (I personally think it is much lower). So if 57% of infections come from 10% of the population I think that makes perfect sense for them to exclude that 10% of the population.

What I find even more interesting is the infection rate among black and hispanic people is much higher (according to the bar chart) then other ethnicities. I'm guessing that for political reasons they couldn't ban black and hispanic men who have had male to male intercourse, so they banned the entire group.

 

I would hope they check all blood no matter who it is from, anything else would just be plain wrong. Shouldnt matter if certain groups are more prone to having "tainted" blood, it should all be tested and certain to be clean before it is given to anyone.

 

I agree, but if you eliminate the high risk percentages of the population it is bound to save them money on blood collection.

 

What about blood from a man who sleeps with men and women? Is it only half-banned?

 

As the once great comedien Andrew Dice Clay said "There is no such thing as a bi-sexual man, You either xxxx xxxx or you don't xxxx xxxx"

 

Well, I guess...sort of...

I dont give blood anyway, but it is still discrimination.

 

The discrimination or the giving of blood? If it is discrimination then yes, it is a bad thing because of my orientation, hence discrimination. If its about the giving of blood, well...no reason why I dont, just never have.

 

I believe they do not allow prostitutes or intravenous drug user to donate either. You also cannot donate blood if you have visited a country with widespread health issues (such as malaria) or if you have a blood disorder. It's not just gays they target.

Disposing of tainted blood is an expensive undertaking. Not allowing high risk groups to donate saves money. While the extra blood would be helpful, the costs and delays caused by disposing of tainted blood far outweigh any benefits from allow donations from high risk groups.

 

Actually, if you've been in an area that has widespread health worries then you are banned for 12 months from giving blood, not for life

 

Straight people get HIV too

 

This is what the guys who wrote the petition have written (I should have included this in the original post)