Submitted on Sunday 22nd May 2016
Rejected on Monday 23rd May 2016
Current status: Rejected
Rejection code: duplicate (see below for details)
Remove deferrals for MSMs in favour of sexual risk screening in blood donation.
Men who have had sex with other men in the past year are prohibited from donating blood. Not only is this discriminatory, it is not evidentially based, nor are much higher risk people prevented from doing so. It is the vestige of hatred and fear about HIV and AIDS directed towards gay/bisexual men.
The NHS states that there have been no recorded cases of HIV transmission by blood transfusion since 2005 - the ban on MSM blood donation was softened to a one year deferral in 2011. Due to effective safe-sex education and community fear about infection, MSMs are practicing safe sex more than ever, while the sexual practices and history of others are not questioned; this ban should be removed in favour of evaluating the sexual risk of all donors. It is discriminatory and punishes the NHS. It is also indefensible to both ban donations and to refuse to prescribe PrEP to help combat HIV infection rates among MSMs.
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Blood-transfusion/Pages/Risks.aspx
You can't sign this petition because it was rejected. But you can still comment on it here at Repetition.me!
The Government e-Petitions Team gave the following reason:
There's already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.
You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/123210
18.217.203.172 Sat, 27 Apr 2024 08:35:19 +0100
