Gay blood ban is kept

[tko_ak]

The Department of Health and Social Services Advisory Committee on Blood Safety has voted 9-6 to keep the ban on gay males donating blood.

Ignorance prevails again. Now, I wonder if Secretary Sebelius, President Obama, or Congress has the moral fortitude to push this any further, or if they'll just roll over.

Comments

[menace3]

Very disappointing and ignorant. Especially anyone and everyone could have HIV or AIDS. Just amazing how we come so far in some areas, but just spin our wheels in others.

[keito_f]

Do you know if the committee members are health professionals or political appointees? Although I would have liked to see it passed, I am glad that there were 6 sane votes

[tko_ak]

As far as I can tell, the DHSS has 49 advisory committees, which are supposed to be technocratic. Members are supposed to be practitioners, academics, and generally experts.

If you're interested.

[spigliatezza]

They claim that they haven't found a satisfactory "alternate set of donor eligibility criteria" yet. I, however, am not convinced that they're trying very hard.

[bdouville]

I seem to recall reading that they're musing about lifting the blood donor ban on men-who-have-sex-with-men here in Canada.