Philosophical Vegan Forum

if you look at the Cross blood donation's faq page (found here http://www.donateblood.com.au/faq#faq_300Red) section 3 and 57 state that you are unable to donate blood if

Within the last 12 months [you have]:
Had male to male sex (that is, oral or anal sex) with or without a condom?
Had sex (with or without a condom) with a male who you think may have had oral or anal sex (with or without a condom) with another man?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_who_ ... ontroversy

these laws came into place in 1983, and have since been lowered, leavening "thought restrictions".

in episode 140 of dogma debates the host reported on a story.

i paraphrase wrote:there was a boy, whom was bullied, on account of his homosexuality, leading to him killing himself. several months beforehand he had added his name to the organ donation registry. on the event of his death his organs where for the most part harvested, except for his eyes. why was his eyes rejected you ask? because he identified as gay. there was no reason to conclude that the bod had had sex, in any form. and tests did not show that he had HIV/aids yet it was used as an excuse to reject his organs for donation. do you really think the blind boy would have cared if his new eyes came from a straight or gay man?

this is yet another social justice issue that gets no coverage. WHY do people care about football players and actresses when people are dyeing biased on homophobia and outdated medical science? (sorry for the angry ranting just there)

it is insane that blood/organ donations have such restrictions when they are in such short supply, all because of the aids pandemic in a much more homophobic society.

The situation in the USA is often different (almost always behind) from where I live, so I'm not always that surprised about what happens there, but I'm pretty shocked by the fact that all these (European) progressive countries—that are generally very LGBT-supportive—have this blood donation restriction, even in my own country where homophobia always get lots of push back.

I do somehow think that people think they accept gay people while in fact they don't as much as you would like them to be. When you push those people in questions like whether they think a gay couple should have the same right to adopt a kid, or indeed about what they think about sexual activity, they aren't that acceptive as you would hope. It's evolutionary speaking very explainable why people feel about it the way they do, but it's sad that lots of people don't have a healthy moral basis for judging those things.

Interesting Australian policies.. They also do not accept blood from fibromyalgia patients but if you have herpes and are not having a current episode you may donate blood!

Oh dear. Why must people do this? If the organs are healthy, it shouldn't matter if they came from a gay person. People are dying because they need a new heart or liver or whatever, but there is not enough to go around thanks to this homophobic society we live in. It truly breaks my heart.

in the same vein how about opt-in organ donation vs opt out. I think that organ donation should be an opt out but here in the states it is opt in.While some countries with an opt-out system like Spain (34 donors per million inhabitants) or Austria (21 donors per million inhabitants) have high donor rates and some countries like Germany (16 donors) or Greece (6 donors) with opt-in systems have lower rates, Sweden, which has an opt-out system has a low rate as well (15 donors) figures.[1] Dr Rafael Matesanz, President of the Spanish National Transplant Organisation, has acknowledged Spain's legislative approach is likely not the primary reason for the country's success in increasing the donor rates, starting in the 1990s.[2]
https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve ... ation.html

I have to side with Logical on this one.

Bottom line: Whoever you are, whoever you want to have sex with, make sure it's the right thing, and unless you really truly want to have a child, protect yourself if you can. And make sure you are tested for any STIs or STDs before sexual intercourse.

When HIV/AIDS was first popping up, homosexual males were the only ones said to have the virus/syndrome. But now lesbians could have it, straight people could have it, little babies unborn or not could get it, females, males, transgenders, whatever you are, you can get it.

Restrictions are not necessary at all. If I were to need a whatever, I wouldn't care if it was from an Asian, an asexual, or a Muslim. As long as the blood or organ was healthy, I would be fine with it. And so should everybody else. If you have a kidney from a gay man, that's fine. Aren't you glad to live? That guy could have been really nice, you know.