New Rules on Sperm Donations by Gays

[demdave]

en who acknowledge having had homosexual sex within the previous five years will not be allowed to make anonymous sperm donations under new rules that the Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce today.

New York State already bars gay men from donating sperm anonymously, and most of the nation's sperm banks have similar restrictions because of concerns over transmission of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.

But a prominent gay rights group nonetheless denounced the new federal rules. Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said that the regulations were misplaced because H.I.V. tests were fast and very effective.

---snip----

The rules are part of a years-long effort by federal drug regulators to strengthen the oversight of the harvesting, sale and medical use of human tissue, mostly from corpses. The federal government has long had rules governing the trade and use of blood and organs. But the extraction and use of things like bones, veins, corneas, ligaments and sperm by nearly 150 companies have largely gone unregulated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/20/health/20organ.html?ex=1085630400&en=79d98416296d9a82&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

[TrogL]

1. If they're hoping to reduce the gay population

It's not going to work.

My parents were straight. I'm not.

[David Zephyr]

2. More "Special Rights" Being Dealt to Homosexuals

Equality under the law? Total horsehit.

[davidinalameda]

3. same rule as for blood donations

I'm not getting in a tizzy about it but it is wrong

it doesn't affect private donations

[Misunderestimator]

4. WHAAAAAAT!?! Jeebus.

I suppose that next they will forbid us lesbians from donating eggs?