As reported in the Nov. 10 Chicago Sun-Times, a gay medical student was prevented from donating his bone marrow to a critically ill leukemia patient because of his sexual orientation.
The incident has caused U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., to write a letter to the Food and Drug Administration. As a member of Congress's Energy and Commerce Committee, she said the donor ban is an 'antiquated and discriminatory system of screening for blood donors,' adding that banning gay and bisexual men from donating blood 'appears to be a case of ideology being placed before science.'
Brian Fletcher told Windy City Times that as a senior at Northwestern in 1993, he donated blood during a campus blood drive. As part of that drive, Fletcher also consented to have a vial of the blood tissue-typed and stored in a bone marrow bank.
According to Fletcher, '(In 2003), I received a phone call telling me that there was a woman in some other unspecified country that was suffering from acute myelogenous leukemia. She was currently in remission thanks to induction chemotherapy (which is the term used to describe total ablation of diseased bone marrow through cytotoxic pharmaceuticals), but she would not survive long-term without a bone marrow transplant. Ms. Ferris told me I was one of 10 people in the world registered with this bone marrow bank that was a match for this woman. She inquired whether I'd be amenable to further testing and possibly undergo a bone marrow harvesting procedure. I happily consented . ... I was eager to begin the process and perhaps give this woman some hope ... .
'I went to a Lifesource donation facility on Fullerton Avenue for further testing. I filled out their intake questionnaire honestly—and I knew that that would create a dilemma for Lifesource. I felt that the proper thing for me to do would be to be honest on the form and indicate that yes, I was a gay man who had had sex with another man since 1977 (note: as a matter of general policy, most blood and tissue donor organizations will not accept donations from men who have had sex with other men since 1977), and then let them decide how to handle this information since the situation with this woman is so dire. Rather than discuss it, however, I was immediately disqualified and removed from the registry. I find this appalling—this woman is in desperate need, and the actions of Lifesource were, I believe, irresponsible and negligent.
Fletcher added that 'The doctrine of informed consent was conceived for this very purpose—to present the risks and benefits to the patient and then let the patient decide the course of medical therapy. This woman was denied that opportunity, and I felt that this particular case was no different in terms of risks and benefits to the patient than any other medical procedure for which consent is obtained. And keep in mind that this blanket policy is simply a federal guideline, not a law. It is sad that there are such simpletons in charge of this particular situation that could not think beyond one dimension.'
According to the Sun-Times article, 'blood banks also exclude gay and bisexual men, under guidelines from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But the ban has long been controversial. In 2000, an FDA advisory committee voted 7-6 against amending the policy to allow donors who haven't had sex with men during the preceding five years.'
Fletcher told the Sun-Times that he is not infected with the HIV virus. The Sun-Times piece also quoted Dr. David Pitrak, a University of Chicago infectious disease specialist, as saying, 'We have pretty much eliminated transfusion-associated HIV infection ... I'm shocked by the archaic policy … about this.'
