MSM Blood donations

The following was a letter written to Dame Sally Davies, who is the Chief Medical Officer for the Departemnt of Health in British Government. As soon as I receive a reply, that too will be posted up for all who are interested to read.

Dear Dame Sally Davies

 

My name is Mr Magic and I am writing to bring to your attention the following petition that has been started on the governments new E-Petition site.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/301

The petition asks that the current ban on MSM blood (blood donated by men who have had intercourse with other men) be lifted on the basis that the foundations of the ban are not rooted in current scientific fact, but in out-of-date prejudices about gay men and HIV.

Whilst it is true that there is HIV amongst some of the gay community, it is also equally true that there is HIV amongst some of the heterosexual population. A blanket ban on the ability to donate blood, over an entire community of people who are only united by their sexual orientation, based solely on the fear of one disease that is not caused or intensified by the actions of this community, seems to me, and I hope it seems to you, to be an incredible injustice. Not an injustice to the people who wish to donate, but an injustice to the people who are in desperate need of operations and treatments who, due to the current blood shortage, cannot receive them.

Please also note, this is not and nor should it ever become, a political issue. The basis for the beginnings of this ban were valid, HIV is a terrible virus and AIDS is still an incurable disease, however the context has now changed and it is time that the ban was lifted as the simple fact is that the majority of gay men do not carry HIV and never will.

The second point in this email is based around time, simply put there is currently a blood shortage in the UK and by the time 100,000 signatures have been put on the petition, many people in dire need of operations will have run out of time. In order to increase the efficiency of lifting this ban I along with the (at time of writing) 1,811 other people who have put their names on this petition request that you personally ask for this ban to be put under immediate review, with the intent to removing it completely.

I stress again that this is not a political issue, nor is it directly an issue of gay rights. It is solely a medical issue. The initial basis for this ban, within the context of the time it was first laid down, was to avoid the spread of a deadly disease and now that the context has changed due to our medical knowledge, about the disease, increasing dramatically, so too should the measures that we put in place to stop it spreading.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email and I eagerly await your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Magic