Do FDA Regulations Discriminate Against Homosexual Men?

San Jose State University Says 'Yes" - Bans Future Blood Drives

Political correctness has run amok - with potentially deadly consequences. The folks at San Jose State University, in the suburbs of San Francisco, have banned further blood drives because of the Food and Drug Administration's rule against accepting blood donations from men who have had sex with other men. The argument is that the FDA regulation discriminates against homosexual men and, thus, violates the school's non-discrimination policy.

The school's ban is meant to protest a rule whose intent is not to discriminate, but to protect public health. This is evidenced by the fact that there are also FDA rules against accepting blood donations from intravenous drug users - another identifiable segment of the population at extraordinary risk of HIV infection. Yet, SJSU officials do not protest that regulation as discriminatory. How could they when I.V. drug use cuts across all age, gender, and racial boundaries? In their rhetoric, the protesters refuse to acknowledge FDA statistics showing that homosexuals' HIV risk is 60 times greater than heterosexuals' or that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) counted 6,050 people who developed AIDS from HIV-tainted blood products before the regulations were put in place.

From a public health perspective, both regulations are not only prudent, they are absolutely necessary - as necessary as taxpayer supported safe sex education, free condoms, or needle exchange programs aimed at preventing transmission of HIV and other deadly infectious diseases. Even with these donor screening and blood testing regulations in place, the FDA estimates that 1,100 units of tainted blood still make it into the blood banks every year. If the outcome of infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis weren't so dreaded, there might be some comfort in this relatively small number. But, AIDS has no cure, hepatitis B and C can destroy the liver, and death from all these diseases is neither pleasant nor swift. If you or your loved one is among 3.6 million who will receive a blood transfusion this year, any risk of infection and death from tainted blood (no matter how small) is unacceptable.