Posted on 12/23/2014 11:05:08 AM PST by reaganaut1
The Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday that it would scrap a decades-old lifetime prohibition on blood donation by gay and bisexual men, a change that experts said was long overdue and could lift the annual blood supply by as much as 4 percent.
The F.D.A. enacted the ban in 1983, early in the AIDS epidemic. At the time, little was known about the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes the disease, and there was no quick test to determine whether somebody had it. But science — and the understanding of H.I.V. in particular — has advanced in the intervening decades, and on Tuesday the F.D.A. acknowledged as much, lifting the lifetime ban but keeping in place a more modest block on donations by men who have had sex with other men in the last 12 months.
In a statement, the agency said it had “carefully examined and considered the scientific evidence” before changing the policy. It said it intended to issue a draft guidance detailing the change in 2015.
The shift puts the United States on par with European countries like Britain, which adjusted its lifetime ban in favor of a 12-month restriction in 2011. Men’s health advocates welcomed the move, saying that the ban was not based on the latest science and that it perpetuated stigma about gay men as a risk to the health of the nation. [...]
“This is a major victory for gay civil rights,” said I. Glenn Cohen, a law professor at Harvard University who specializes in bioethics and health. “We’re leaving behind the old view that every gay man is a potential infection source." He said, however, that the policy was “still not rational enough."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Next the homosexuals will challenge the 12-month restriction.
...
Of course they will. In practice, the ban hasn’t changed at all.
Not that I would have a transfusion now.
If homosexual donations only would account for 1%, then obviously public health considerations are not what's driving this. Thanks for making that clear.
My sister and her children can’t give blood because they once lived in Scotland.
I know that very well, from personal experience.
Yes, but many will die willingly in the name of PC.
The folks still have their heads up their anal exit passageways, and won’t hear about this. The media will deliberately and intentionally hide it from the public.
So there will be no outcry. P.S. why do you think the news was released today?
Your question has been answered in prior posts, but I can see a movement growing up where people will have designated blood donations if they’ve not stored their own. I.e., church or other member groups will have drives, or lists of people in the various blood types who will donate to another member in that type as the need arises.
And I can see businesses grow up where they have only very highly tested blood that one can buy beyond the standard blood banks. People who will have alternatives available to them will not be accepting transfusions from the general pool of blood banks.
I tried to give blood for my husband in the mid-90s, but they refused to take it. They said that they couldn’t because I was a relative, and they could only take blood from the Red Cross.
That sounds like a rule for that specific facility or chain, maybe a contract with the Red Cross?
I don’t know. I refused to allow them to give my husband blood. They weren’t happy.
Costs $150 a pint for blood.
Let’s see how much it goes up when the screening failures start.
Totally irresponsible. But I expected no less from this bunch.
What has changed that originally forced the FDA to impose the restrictions?
Nothing.
They have put countless people at risk.
So now “Gay Rights” trump public safety. I think all those who belong to banned groups (Hello some U.S. veterans) should demand all bans be lifted. It will be interesting to see the FDA’s response.
That would be a great idea, parallel to the Christian healthsharing ministries that escaped Obamacare requirements.
If we had Christian bloodbanks, you’d have a similar assurance of the lifestyle of the participants,
and subsequent reduced costs.
(Side note - obviously, the Christian/Jewish value system is inherently HEALTHIER and superior or these ministries wouldn’t be able to keep costs so low)
Well this is just great. I hope I never need blood. I don’t want an early death just because the government allows people with deadly STDs to donate blood.
We’ll never know...because they won’t tell us...
Hunkey friggin’ dory.
Here comes the AIDS epidemic.
If I ever have a transfusion, I will demand a non-gay-friendly service.
I guess I won’t be planning any surgery in the near future.
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