Wanted: Scientific Reason for FDA's Gay Sperm Ban
Recently, the FDA issued an edict advising sperm banks to bar as donors men who have had sex with other men within five years prior to donation. I have searched through the medical literature for a sound scientific basis for this directive, yet the only reasoning behind the recommendation is the fact that homosexual men are at high risk of HIV. If this were the rationale, though, it follows that the FDA should bar other high-risk donors such as men who have used IV drugs or have had sex with prostitutes. This, however, is not the case. Considering the (increasingly) stringent testing procedures employed by sperm banks, the glaring inconsistency suggests the FDA is influenced by ideology, concerned more with sexual preference than with risky behavior. Here’s why, using California Cryobank, the nation’s leading sperm bank, as a model:
All donated sperm, regardless of the sexual orientation of the donor, is frozen and quarantined, allowing for ample time to retest both donor and sample -- every three months -- for not only HIV but gonorrhea, syphilis, hepatitis, and a host of other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In addition, donors must pass a battery of tests for genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs, Thalassemia, canavan disease, Fanconi anemia, and various chromosome abnormalities to name a few. Also, each donor’s medical history is documented, as is that of his parents, grandparents, siblings, and cousins. The donor must have gone to a four-year college, commit to donating routinely for one to two years, and undergo blood tests and physical exams every three months. Interestingly, once all is said and done, less than 5% of hopeful sperm donors are accepted. [...]
The FDA always faces pressure from a variety of interest groups. Let us hope that the agency is not caving into pressure from homophobic moralists in its recommendation to bar sperm donations by gay men. That would truly be a disservice to the public from a supposedly science-based regulatory body.
Aubrey Stimola is the Assistant Director of Public Health at the American Council on Science and Health. (source)
You have to wonder in all of this... If being gay is genetic, which I believe it is, do you think that by banning gay men from donating sperm, that they are really trying to get rid of the “gay” trait from the gene pool? Just a comment from my paranoid self, for what it’s worth.
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Fritz, we both know that will never happen. That minority can't be kicked around anymore.
Gay men are banned from donating blood and organs, too.
Black women account for over 70% of new HIV/AIDS cases these days. I wonder what would happen if they issued a blanket ban on blood and tissue donations from that particular minority group. I'm certain it wouldn't be pretty.
When will the stupidity stop,i read today that groups are pressuring kraft because of it's sponsorship of chicagos 2005 gay games,i just want to know what will be next,i wander if there are a group of people who sit in a room and come up with this stuff or do they have a group of monkeys that help them come up with new ways of putting an end to us.
Will,
I completely agree with you. Gayness will always be around. It's not a bad thing at all, just think of how much more interesting we make the world!
Robin,
In a world where kids eat 5-10 times a week at McDonalds and their parents sue McDonalds because their children have a weight problem, or where someone will sue a restaurant because they got burned from "hot" coffee, it's not hard to imagine that in 20 years, sperm banks could indeed be sued because their child turned out to be gay.
Pretty scary stuff. It's called "genetic engineering".
Yes - I am sure in 18 - 20 years we'll be seeing the straight-only sperm banks being sued for millions of dollars for still managing to produce gay children...
I catch your point but you can never eliminate gayness from the gene pool. Only a fraction of humans are conceived from donated sperm. The vast majority of men who procreate do so naturally and contain imbedded in thir midst a large number who are bisexual, gay and closeted or those who are straight and just have the proper gay genes in their DNA ready to pass on.
I can imagine, however, that hysterically homophobic clients might well be placing pressure on sperm banks to eliminate sperm with any trace of homosexuality in its history. The ironic fact is that any of our fathers might have donated sperm and produced a child who turned out gay like us.