TO THE EDITOR:
I could be a lifelong blood donor. I weigh enough, I’ve never been to a country on the deferral list and needles don’t scare me. I’ve donated more than a dozen pints of blood, and since coming to UNC have donated 60 units of platelets, until the policy that men who have sex with men are deferred for life from donating.
It’s disappointing that in “Facing low donation rates, Red Cross seeks blood,” (Mar. 1) The Daily Tar Heel did not mention this prejudiced policy. Currently, men who have had oral or anal sex with men are barred from donating for life. According to a joint statement released by the American Red Cross and American’s Blood Centers, the current lifetime deferral is “medically and scientifically unwarranted.” Currently, the HIV risk from a unit of blood has been reduced to about 1 per 2 million donations in the United States. The ban is based on outdated science from the AIDS epidemic. A heterosexual individual who has sex with someone who is HIV positive is deferred for a year, but a gay man who has sex once, even with protection, is deferred for life.
In the summer of 2010, John Kerry and other senators endorsed amending the ban, and a committee in HHS supported changing the policy, claiming it was “suboptimal” but with no recommendation of what to change it to. The DTH article was right to bring up an important issue, but it ignored a major problem in current policy.
Lee Storrow
Senior
Political Science
