[Lilly]

Originally Posted by blazey

Whilst we're on the topic of blood, how many people think it's right that homosexuals aren't able to give blood?

We've had this conversation before on Accyweb. I have a gay male friend at work who has offered to give blood and bone marrow but has been told that he can't due to the risk of HIV. He was quite mad about this and so was I, as has been said, anyone, straight or gay can have HIV and as long as a HIV test has come back clear, any person should be able to give blood / bone marrow. I didn't think they could afford to be so choosy with their donors.

I mentioned this on here and someone pointed out that, although anyone can potentially be HIV positive, it is much more likely that a homosexual will be, rather than a straight person and it is not feasible to test everybody prior to donation.

Blood can be 'washed' after being donated, prior to being given to someone else and this would clean it of HIV virus but this would be a very time consuming and costly process for the NHS so it is easier all round to just not take blood from homosexuals.