I just heard an advert on Spotify about giving blood, which brought into mind a recent mention in the news about attempts to overturn restrictions on who can give blood.

In this day and age when blood is screened and STIs are prevalent among both heterosexual and homosexual individuals, do we really gain much from preventing gay men from donating blood?

I'm curious to know whether the same restriction applies to organ donation?

Should we continue to discriminate against certain groups from donating blood, especially given the shortage in supply? And another moral issue to tackle, would it be appropriate to pay people to give blood, to help lessen the shortage?

Discuss.

If you paid me, I might actually be arsed

Start paying people to donate blood when you start charging then for transfusions !

If you start to pay people to give blood then you also need to be pretty good at monitoring how often they do it.
There will be a temptation among certain groups to give more often than is wise or beneficial. Particularly people with addictions which raises a whole heap of other issues. On balance I think it should remain voluntary.

It can take months for certain STI's to show up in screening (which is why people who have suffered needle stick injuries are tested twice several months apart to confirm they don't have anything nasty).

I do however think that the prohibition against gay men donating blood should be lifted. For some reason I doubt very much that there is a significant difference in promiscuity between homosexual and heterosexual people so the chances of infection from either are probably about the same.

Having read the form you are given when giving blood (or trying to) I'm just amazed that they let anyone give blood, there are so many restrictions.vCJD has an awful lot to answer for.

I give blood as often as I can, I think it's supposed to be every four months, but I usually get away with going every three...No one asks questions! Free tea and biscuits FTW! Also makes for a cheap night after
TBH, the free tea is enough payment for me, I like the idea of helping someone, and I don't think I'd feel the same if I was being paid.

I tend to agree with LU, homosexual people shouldn't be discriminated, especially as everything is screened. I think the questions like "have you been to XYZ in the last 6 months" are sensible, they change on a regular basis so you can see they are trying to filter out certain things.

I used to give blood regularly, in the UK. Funnily enough, I saw that there was a blood drive in 2 weeks here, I'll try and get back into it.

I don't think that people should be excluded for their lifestyle, but high risk groups should be required to show a recent blood test, especially for Hep, AIDS/HIV and STIs.

Is there still a stigma in the UK about getting regular blood tests for AIDS, Hep and STIs in general?

I found an ex-girlfriend died from Hep B, so I went and got tested (she died about 2 years after we split up, but I still felt unsure). Same for HIV, I wanted to start a long-term relationship and, even though I've only had a couple of girlfriends and only unprotected with 1 of those, I still felt more comfortable getting the test than having that nagging doubt in the back of my mind.

I haven't been able to since about December Stoooooopid Meds.

i used to give blood about twice a year for nearly 20 years ever since serving in the army
as i am O RH- which can be used in transfusions for all blood groups

after giving blood i used to have a cup of tea and a ciggy outside the transfusion centre at the hospital
but about 3 years ago they banned smoking on all of the hospital property, so i stopped giving blood …

Tell me about it. When I registered at the local Doctors surgery they must have told the blood service as I started getting invitations to donate.
When I finally went along they said I couldn't because of the medication I was being prescribed. Still, haven't had an invitation since.

This has all reminded me of a sketch I saw, think it was Fry and Laurie, where the vampire's intended victim had just been asked what his blood type was:

'Eh?'

Vampire quickly scribbles down 'A'.

'Oh... B.'

Classic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKdGwfMD8u8

Fantastically clever.

My memory's obviously faulty, but that's the one!

Many thanks

As you say Classic and fantastically clever