Government could ease 31-year-old ban on blood donations from gay men
[...] “They really are out of step with the rest of the world,” said Glenn Cohen, a Harvard Law School professor who with two colleagues recently argued in the Journal of the American Medical Association for a new U.S. policy.
Cohen noted that numerous countries have abandoned blanket bans and put in place shorter deferral periods. For instance, in Australia, Japan and Britain, a gay man who wants to donate blood must have been abstinent for a year. Canada has a five-year deferral period. South Africa asks anyone who has had sex with a new partner in the past six months to wait before giving blood, regardless of sexual orientation or gender. Italy assesses each potential donor’s risk on the basis of individual behaviors. [...]
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bioethics fda health law policy human rights i. glenn cohen public health regulation