A friend of mine's partner died about a week ago. He informed me today that the deceased's organs were deemed unacceptable for donation. The reason? Not because he was a smoker, but because he was gay. The justification is the assumption that gay men are high-risk due to their tendency to engage in sexual activity with many partners which leads to the transmission of HIV. Even if the organs tested HIV negative, the virus can lie dormant.
If the family of the deceased didn't disclose his sexual orientation, would they have asked? What if I was in need of a liver transplant? This man could have saved someone's live, but because he liked boys, his liver is unfit?
This man had been in a committed relationship for 5 years! Healthcare professionals need to be asking about BEHAVIOR, not sexual orientation. This law is completely discriminatory and homophobic.
2 comments:
Wow. I just Googled that, hoping it was a Wisconsin thing, but pretty sure it couldn't be because I seem to recall something about a national registry. And the entire first page showed articles about how these are the rules in Canada!
And I thought Canada was less lame than we. Citing my source because I can't get my head out of school:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/01/07/organ-transplant.html
P.S. I am glad you are writing. I think I shall link to you so that you keep doing it.
Thanks for the link! Yeah, they hit the nail on the head by saying we should be asking about behavior. I couldn't really find anything online about it being the case in America, but my friend swears it is. Word.
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