22 May 2004

by Anai Rhoads

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AnaiRhoads.org - The United States government plans to exclude homosexual men from donating sperm as early as 25 May 2004.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will now require all laboratories that acquire, solicit, or collect blood and tissue samples from an individual directly, to go through a series of questions relating to the person's sexual history prior to accepting the samples. The questions will determine if male donors have had any sexual contact with persons of the same sex in the last five years. If the answer is yes, the FDA's answer will be - no.

"Transplanted human tissues and cells have the potential to treat or cure a wide range of health conditions including skin replacement after severe burns and corneas to restore eyesight," said Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Lester M. Crawford.

"We now have new tissue technologies that hold the potential to provide treatments for diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's Disease, hemophilia and many other serious conditions. Our comprehensive approach helps make these novel products as safe as possible while still encouraging innovation. We have achieved this by tailoring our regulations to the degree of risk posed by each product."

The U.S. government believes that gay men who make anonymous donations to sperm banks may spread transmittable diseases. Old policies have been updated to discriminate gays according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

"This new rule was developed with input from many concerned consumers, associations and tissue establishments. In all cases, we carefully considered the comments we received in the proposed rule and made changes in the final rule when the science supported the change," Dr. Crawford said.

Under this new rule, reproductive tissue (semen, ova, and embryos), hematopoietic stem cells derived from cord blood and peripheral blood sources (circulating blood sources as opposed to bone marrow), cellular therapies and other innovative products are also regulated.

Other tests imposed by the FDA now include:

• HIV/AIDS
• Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
• Syphilis
• Chlamydia trachomatis
• Neisseria gonorrhea
• West Nile virus
• Gangrene
• Hepatitis B virus (HBV)
• Hepatitis C virus (HCV)
• Sepsis

"The FDA's guidelines are unscientific. There is a 72 hour test which would provide information as to whether a person was HIV positive, we know that even the International Red Cross accepts blood from men who have sex with men," said Roberta Sklar, spokesperson for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

This change in policy lumps gays with intravenous drug users -- assuming that gays have a higher risk of having HIV/AIDS, a popular misconception thought to be left behind in the mid-90's.

"This is another instance of the Bush administration ignoring scientific information and putting forth their own agenda to satisfy the extreme right wing conservative voters. It does not take in current scientific findings and recommendations," said Sklar.

www.fda.gov/cber/rules/suitdonor.pdf PDF file.

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