In recent years, both the United Kingdom and Canada have made changes to their laws shifting from an indefinite deferral of MSM to a twelve-month and five-year deferral, respectively. Further complicating matters is the question, What is sex?, which in the case of some sexual practices, as I pointed out here last spring, is not a settled matter. In epidemiology, behavior (MSM) trumps socially constructed identity ( gay or bisexual men). That we use the term MSM to classify this population suggests some of the ambiguities and complexities of sexual identity, which further complicates the issue. Potential responsible MSM donors are faced with the ethical dilemma: Lie about prior sexual practices when donating blood or abstain from blood donor drives. The committee found the current donor deferral policies to be suboptimal in permitting some potentially high risk donations while preventing some potentially low risk donations, but voted in favor of retaining the existing policy, and identified areas requiring further research.
![absitece law gay men blood donation journal article absitece law gay men blood donation journal article](https://i0.wp.com/calgaryjournal.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Clickhere_BadBlood_1.png)
The Health and Human Service’s Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability (ACBSA) met to discuss the FDA MSM deferral policy on June 10-11, 2010. This ban includes any man who has had sex with a man since 1977, which embraces Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and the Millennial Generation. The FDA notes that its ban on blood from MSM donors emerged from policies early in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, though the current policy was formulated in 1992.
![absitece law gay men blood donation journal article absitece law gay men blood donation journal article](https://www.hivjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/60c32befacd0d-1090x600.png)
Ending the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) longstanding ban on blood donations by men who have sex with men (MSM) could result in an estimated 360,600 men donating an additional 615,300 pints of blood each year, an increase of 2 to 4 percent. Gates for the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, is not rhetorical.
![absitece law gay men blood donation journal article absitece law gay men blood donation journal article](http://www.urban75.org/blog/images/comacchio-ferrera-italy-13.jpg)
That question, according to a recent study by Ayako Miyashita and Gary J. What if you could potentially save nearly two million people with a simple regulatory policy change?