You are not eligible to donate if:
From January 1, 1980, through December 31, 1996, you spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 3 months or more, in the United Kingdom (UK), or
From January 1, 1980, to present, you had a blood transfusion in an any country(ies) in the (UK)…
You were a member of the U.S. military, a civilian military employee, or a dependent of a member of the U.S. military who spend a total time of 6 months on or associated with a military base in any of the following areas during the specified time frames
*From 1980 through 1990 – Belgium, the Netherlands (Holland), or Germany
*From 1980 through 1996 – Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy, or Greece
There was a recent story of a blood shortage in the area and I went today to check and see if the Red Cross had modified its restrictions. Turns out, that I am still ineligible. Who knows if I will ever be able to legitimately donate blood. Even if they do relax the vCJD restriction there may be another obstacle: Men who have had sex with another man since 1977 can not donate. While I haven’t had sex with another guy, who knows, maybe by the time the vCJD restriction is lifted, I may have.
It really gets to me how restrictive the Red Cross is about blood donors. I would probably be one of the safest sources of blood considering my safe and utterly boring lifestyle. When the call out for blood donors goes out, the phrase “beggars can’t be choosers,” comes to my mind. I’ve got blood and will freely give it out but they won’t take it.
I may not be able to give blood but my bone marrow is available. If you haven’t, please consider joining the registry.
National Marrow Donor Program – www.marrow.org
5 comments:
There was a media storm in the UK a few years ago when a neo-nazi who needed a blood transfusion demanded it be from a "pure aryan" donor.
As I recall, the doctors told him they didn't keep records of the ethnicity of donors, so he had to either (a) find a pure aryan to give him blood or (b) trust to luck his donor was such a person.
There was no one who cared about him enough to give him their blood, so he relented.
I don't know whether the doctors were telling him the truth. Some people opined they should have simply refused him any transfusion.
Sadly, that's not the only reason you're ineligible to give blood.
Ugh. Don't get me started on the Red Cross. There are other alternative blood banks out there that don't have restrictions from the Nixon era.
@Kapitano: There was an ad in this country that went something like that. Some guy who needed an organ transplant didn't want one from someone who was black, gay, left handed, old, and so on. The doctor said that he was going to die.
While I would not have refused the neo-nazi help, I certainly wouldn't have stopped him from his own stupid decision.
@Brian: It's the only reason right now...
@Herb: What happens to the blood that is collected at alternative blood banks? Hospitals don't use them, do they?
It depends. You just have to do research to see what places are reputable and what your local hospitals use.
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