Ban on Blood Donation

[Barzul]

A vote by a Department of Health and Human Services committee was made yesterday deciding to continue a 20 year discrimination on gay men's ability to donate blood. It was decided that the blood is just too high-risk. While there is only a stipulation on other 'high-risk' types:

"In 1983 the Food and Drug Administration, a subagency of HHS that regulates the nation's blood supply collection, barred any man who'd had sexual contact with another man since 1977 from donating blood. FDA policy allows heterosexual men and women who have had sexual contact with an HIV-positive partner to give blood after a one-year deferral period..."

While the donation organizations themselves don't even believe it:

"Addressing the committee on Thursday, Kerry said he was joined by the nation's largest blood-banking organizations in opposition to the current policy. The American Red Cross, the American Association of Blood Banks, and America's Blood Centers have all blasted the policy as 'scientifically and medically unwarranted.'"

The full article can be found here: http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/06/11/HHS_to_Retain_Gay_Blood_Ban/

What do you guys think?

[SmartyPants]

I don't think the Senators would reject blood based on prejudice, but on statical information that shows homosexuals are higher risks.  I am sure they have a similar bans on other high-risk behaviors like heroin use.  This isn't a case of homophobia like "don't ask, don't tell".

Since health care professionals think it is ok, then I think we should listen to them.  The problem is that the new Helath Care Law showed that Washington doesn't listen to health care professionals.

[MikeW781]

It depends if the stats back up the idea that gays get AIDS more often:
"This is a discussion with real social significance for gay men," Kerry said before the committee. "They are clearly the target of this policy, which was initiated in the early '80s, when little was known about HIV/AIDS, except that gay men seemed to be contracting it almost exclusively. Today, this lingering policy carries with it a social stigma for this population that is still engaged in battles for civil rights on a whole array of fronts."

[KZ]

Agree with im2smart4u here- methinks statistics are the main factor at work. Forget not that historically HIV spread through the homosexual community, and dates like 1977 are thus not surprising at all in that context, as that was the time where AIDS gained worldwide recognition and started the "jump" to heterosexuals.