Take your Blood and Go Home!

My son tried to donate blood recently but he was rejected. Why would they reject a healthy young man’s blood? Because he had a cornea transplant. Weird, huh? There was no blood involved in his cornea transplant, other than his own that is. Even the people at the blood donation place seemed confused as to why he couldn’t give blood. They had to look it up. Apparently there is some connection to a very rare condition called Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease. I cannot for the life of me figure out how a cornea would be connected to a neurological disease. It’s part of the eye - not the brain!

Anyway, I decided to do some research and here is a list of people who should not donate blood (according to this website anyway.)

People who have been in any of the following categories in the last 12 months must not donate for at least 12 months after the event.

• Anyone who has received someone else’s blood
• Anyone who has been treated for any sexually-transmitted disease
• Sexual partner of a person who has received payment for sex
• Sexual partner of a man who has had sex with another man
• Sexual partner of someone who has used intravenous drugs
• Anyone who has spent more than 3 days at one time in jail or prison
• Anyone who has received a kidney or corneal transplant, or skin or bone graft

People who have been in any of the following categories should never give blood.

• Men who have had sex with another man, even only one time
• Anyone who has injected drugs into the veins, even only one time
• Anyone with confirmed clinical signs, symptoms, or laboratory evidence of HIV infection
• Anyone with hemophilia or related clotting disorders who have received clotting factor concentrates
• Anyone who has been paid for sex, even only one time
• Anyone over 10 years of age with a history of hepatitis or a known carrier of a hepatitis virus.

I don’t know about you, but this list sounds distinctly homophobic to me. And whoreophobic. But what really struck me is how the transplant precipitants were lumped in there with all the other homosexual, drug addicted, prostitutes.