The title to my blog seems like it should have come from a newspaper headline in the 1990s, but no,
as Ian Thompson from the ACLU Washington Legislative Office points out , the FDA’s ban on blood donations from any man who has ever had any level of sexual contact with another man is currently on the books.
The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability is
currently in session debating this policy , among
The
ACLU has submitted commentary to the Committee, rightly pointing out: “While there is no constitutional right to donate blood, government policy regulating the blood donation field must not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation by
adopting differing standards for conduct that poses similar risks, based solely on the identity of those engaging in such conduct. In other words, gay and bisexual men cannot constitutionally be singled out for differential treatment solely because of their sexual relationships.”
It is not only civil libertarians that are troubled by this policy. As Ian from the WLO points out, “in recent years, the policy has been criticized by the American Red Cross, the American Association of Blood Banks and America's Blood Centers as ‘scientifically and medically unwarranted.’”
Hopefully by my next blog, the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability will have determined it is finally time to end this discriminatory ban and provide granular and medically founded reasons to deny someone the ability to donate blood.