Health Canada Extends Homophobic Discrimination to Organ Donation

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London, ON – January 8, 2008 – Health Canada has recently instituted a new policy which bans all sexually active gay men from donating organs, regardless of their HIV status. This latest outrage from Health Canada, which came as a surprise even to many transplant organizations, illustrates both the arbitrariness of their policies with respect to gay men and their lack of commitment to any real change of their discriminatory and blatantly homophobic policies.

Firstly, this latest policy (banning gay men from donating organs) creates restrictions based on a 5-year ban, excluding only men who have had sex with men in the last 5 years. In combination with their June 2007 decision to continue banning blood donation from men who have had sex with men since 1979, it becomes clear that rather than basing these decisions on scientific facts regarding HIV prevalence in various populations, they are instead assigning arbitrary restrictions.

The reasoning behind these arbitrary policy decisions becomes evident when their purpose is considered. Rather than promoting the safety of the blood or organ supply, the publicly-stated reasoning for these policies, the policy instead serves the purpose of ‘reassuring’ the public – convincing them that yes, those dangerous groups (gay men, IV drug users, and sex workers) have been filtered out. The use of stereotypes and outdated beliefs to restore the public’s trust is being chosen instead of rigorous scientific research, and this is not acceptable from an organization which claims to have the best interests of all Canadians at heart.

We join with those across the country in calling for a clear and evidence-based explanation for both the old policy and the new, as well as an assurance that any restrictions are based on the behaviours and actions found to increase risk, rather than membership in a supposed “high-risk group”.

SAQD-UWO

For those who missed the news last night...

Submitted by Craig A on January 9, 2008 - 11:28am.

In addition to blatantly ignoring the problems with risk groups, the A-Channel coverage last night interviewed a London doctor who was nice enough to tell us that it's not discrimination, it's just that homosexuals are being filtered out as well as injection drug users, prostitutes, and other undesirables....

Oh. That makes me feel much better then.

.....

--- The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it. Karl Marx

"it's not discimination,

Submitted by Thomas Czermak on January 9, 2008 - 1:10pm.

"... it's not discrimination, it's just that homosexuals are being filtered out as well as injection drug users, prostitutes, and other undesirables"

naive or ignorant blabber from the mouth of a subordinate, white heterosexual I presume.

The problem with 'Risk Groups'

Submitted by Craig A on January 8, 2008 - 11:02pm.

Health Canada likes to talk about 'high-risk groups'. They throw out a bunch of statistics about the fact that gay men, as a group, have a higher risk of HIV infection, while ignoring the real problems with this concept of risk groups. The problem is that the lines between groups are arbitrary. Gay men have a higher risk, but that's because those who practice safe sex or are monogamous are grouped together with those who do not take precautions. If you were to use this 'risk group' argument you could also argue that individuals between the ages of 18 and 35 have a higher risk of HIV than those over 40, and thus the same argument used to ban gay men now bans those under 35. The same argument could be applied to those with incomes under $30,000, as there is also a higher prevalence of infection in the poor, or with those of certain ethnic or racial backgrounds. By drawing lines in certain ways, groups can be made to be high or low risk, and thus any stereotype can be given supposed scientific backing.

This is why I join with those in SAQD and others in calling for a clear scientific explanation of what causes this high risk, and policies based on that. If the high risk is caused by unprotected sex, the same restrictions should apply to all individuals who have had unprotected sex. If the high risk is caused by unprotected anal sex, the restrictions should be applied to all those who have had unprotected anal sex. Surely there cannot be a higher risk of contracting HIV in anal sex between men than in anal sex between a man and a woman.

Yet this is exactly what is being ignored by Health Canada. Rather than outlining risk FACTORS, they choose to select risky PEOPLE, based on personal traits. If the same thing were done by race or gender, there would be rioting in the streets. This is exactly what is being done based on orientation, so why is there such a conspicuous silence?

--- The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it. Karl Marx

This is blatent

Submitted by Thomas Czermak on January 8, 2008 - 2:30pm.

This is blatent discrimination. No ifs, ands or buts.

Who do you think we should contact to express our concerns? Any rallies or other actions underway?

Response

Submitted by Craig A on January 13, 2008 - 10:52am.

As promised - a response has been organized for this Thursday at noon. Details are in the events calendar here - it will be a rally and march downtown from Victoria Park to the Health Canada office at Richmond and York.

--- The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it. Karl Marx

This actually caught a lot

Submitted by Craig A on January 8, 2008 - 5:02pm.

This actually caught a lot of us by surprise, even those working on the blood donation issue. In fact, by the sounds of the news stories it even caught transplant organizations by surprise - as a result the response is still in the planning stages. Rest assured there will be one, and details will be provided as usual on this site.

As this is now clearly a federal government matter, for those interested in writing I would suggest either your local MP, the Minister of Health, or one of the opposition Health Critics. If you'd like to get in touch with those organizing the response, contact saqd.uwo@gmail.com.

--- The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it. Karl Marx