A new piece by Bill of Health contributor Art Caplan on Forbes:
In 2001 one of my goals as the chair of the Federal government’s Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability was to get the ban on gay men donating blood overturned. The ban made no sense ethically or scientifically. The ban stigmatized gay men, and insisting on a lifetime prohibition for even one sexual encounter, condom or no condom, made no scientific sense. Finally, almost 15 years later, the FDA has joined the rest of the Western world and dropped the lifetime prohibition.
The FDA still insists on a one-year ban on having sex with another man even though today’s testing is very reliable for detecting HIV and other diseases at six months. Still, at a time when blood donations are falling and demand is rising, getting more donors into the supply side is a very good thing. […]
Read the full article here.