Restriction on Blood Donation (1 Viewer)

[townie]

After a lovely Politics tute, it came to my attention about homosexuals and donating blood, and i checked the Red Cross website, and here's what i found.

You will not be able to give blood for a period of 12 months after you:

• had a tattoo

• had a blood transfusion

• had any piercing (except ear piercing with a disposable needle)

• have been in prison or lock up

• had male to male sex

• had sex with a prostitute

• had a partner with hepatitis B or C

Now, i can see all these things and y they dont want ur blood, u may contract HIV or some other disease that wont show up for a while, fair enough, however, i object to it specifically stating male to male sex as stopping you from giving, yet unprotected sex is not, that is direct discrimination on the grounds of sexuality.

I would have no problem if it said, u cant give blood for 12 months if u've had sex without using a condom/used a condom with a non-water based lubricant. i have NO problem with that, i do have a problem on them specifically listing male to male sex as grounds for disqualification, protected or otherwise. Not just that, u cant have sex with a prostitute, but it's okay to have sex with a girl whose slept with 15 men in the last 5 nights, unprotected! if anything, non-street prostitute, at least, would be cleaner, with regular checkups

Wat do u guys think

P.S. if u've injected any drug not perscribed by a doctor, ur banned for life (just thought i'd mention that if u were shocked it wasnt in the list)

 

[Rorix]

afaik the anus is especially tender and easily torn so it goes hand in hand with the piercing thing

 

[townie]

afaik the anus is especially tender and easily torn so it goes hand in hand with the piercing thing

okay, that may be so, then shouldnt it at least be changed to anal sex, not male to male sex?

and shouldnt unprotected sex be in their anyway?

 

[modelzsuck]

Yeah, what is the difference between male-female anal and male-male anal??? Females can get HIV/AIDS aswell.

 

[Slidey]

I'm sorry, but you can't call discrimination on this one. Well you can, but it won't matter. They are going by statistics, not political correctness - something which has no power if it will endanger people, in this context.

 

[townie]

my point is tho, they're not eliminating all risk (which i know they cant) but they are ignoring some pretty big risk factors, it would be politically incorrect so say u cant give blood if u have sex with a slut, but it would be the right thing to do, they're doing a half-arsed effort if they arent including other MAJOR riskfactors

 

[pete_mate]

waa waa, this is a matter of peoples lives not pc

im not homophobic but aswell as anal sex being more likely to result in contraction there is also a greater percentage of homosexuals with aids, which warrants male to male being said rather than anal.

 

[Slidey]

my point is tho, they're not eliminating all risk (which i know they cant) but they are ignoring some pretty big risk factors, it would be politically incorrect so say u cant give blood if u have sex with a slut, but it would be the right thing to do, they're doing a half-arsed effort if they arent including other MAJOR riskfactors

Uh, they DO eliminate you if that's the case:

"had sex with a prostitute"

 

[townie]

Uh, they DO eliminate you if that's the case:

"had sex with a prostitute"

lets think of an imaginary girl, lets call her Sonia, lets say sonia has a job at Westpac, Sonia every night goes out and gets gang-banged just for the fun of it, unprotected, she's not a prostitute. then u have unprotected sex with her. she's just as likely to be infected as a prostitute. if u have unprotected sex with sonia, u can still give blood

but if u have unprotected sex with somebody, ur not stopped from giving blood, i think u should be, it's perfectly reasonably, and it should be all anal sex. i fail to see y thats such a bad thing, better safe than sorry right?

 

[sugared plum]

12. Why does the Australian Red Cross Blood Service not accept donations from men who have had sex with men (gay and bi-sexual men)?

State and Territory legislation and requirements of the Code of Good Manufacturing Practice for Human Blood and Tissues mandate donor selection on the basis of certain risk behaviours. The exclusion of men who have had sex with men in the past 12 months is based on the statistically higher incidence of some blood borne diseases amongst such groups, and on the existence of ‘window period’ infections. In this context, the ‘window period’ is the time between contraction of a disease and the capacity of testing to detect it in the human body. Such deferrals are in accordance with international practice.

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service is motivated only by the requirement to supply the safest possible blood to the Australian community. There is no other judgement being made, and we urge all who are precluded from participating as blood donors to consider other ways of serving the community through voluntary activity with the Australian Red Cross.

hmm "statistically higher"

 

[Slidey]

lets think of an imaginary girl, lets call her Sonia, lets say sonia has a job at Westpac, Sonia every night goes out and gets gang-banged just for the fun of it, unprotected, she's not a prostitute. then u have unprotected sex with her. she's just as likely to be infected as a prostitute. if u have unprotected sex with sonia, u can still give blood

but if u have unprotected sex with somebody, ur not stopped from giving blood, i think u should be, it's perfectly reasonably, and it should be all anal sex. i fail to see y thats such a bad thing, better safe than sorry right?

Unprotected extra-marital sex and all anal sex should be precluded, yes. You're saying they aren't...?

 

[iamsickofyear12]

I have no problem with it.

 

[soha]

better to be safe then sorry
they obviously ban it for good reasons..i dunno why
but there has to be good reason behind it

 

[dark`secrets]

damnnnn i recently pierced my ears and i've booked for june!
shucks!

 

[Atticus.]

im 100% with townie on this one...
i think that its wrong that man on man sex has been highlighted individualy. it should be written as anal sex and left at that...

 

[iambored]

why not contact them about it? i think the list should be left as it is, but they can add the extra risk factors on.

 

[Atticus.]

why not contact them about it? i think the list should be left as it is, but they can add the extra risk factors on.

in response to this thread i did...
i fired off an email about how i thought it was unfair and discriminatory and i put the link for this thread in...

 

[modelzsuck]

Way to go!!!

 

[samuelblayden]

better safe than sorry but yes if you have had unprotected sex you should be barred for a while but some of the things in the list shouldn't be barred for 12 months

 

[Rorix]

in response to this thread i did...
i fired off an email about how i thought it was unfair and discriminatory and i put the link for this thread in...

ironically their answer to your email can be found in this thread.