End organ and tissue donation predjudice

He died at 26, thinking he'd be able to donate his tissues to someone else in Nova Scotia. But Liam Dee was denied that option because he was a man married to another man. And that is not just wrong. It's a call to action to change the policy.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I knew of a couple of menwho contracted HIV through blood transfusions back before
the risks were known. They wereboth hemophiliacs and they were routinely going through
that process to help them survive.The fact that they and others were infected
through a tainted blood supply was tragic. It ended up leading to the entire
restructuring of the Canadian system, andit led to the policy where gay men
weren't allowed to donate anymore. Justover a year ago, there were some

(00:23):
changes to that policy still doesn't seemfair to some potential donors, and there's
also an issue for gay men whowant to donate organs or tissue, and
I'll get to that in a minute. At the end of April last year,
Canadian Blood Surfaces set on their websitethat they were pleased to share that
Health Canada has approved their request toremove eligibility criteria specific to men who have
sex with men and instead focus onsexual behavior associated with higher risk of infection

(00:46):
among all donors. And that initiallywas seen as a progressive step forward,
but that was tamped down by afew of the details. It stated.
The new criteria will ask all donorsregardless of gender or sexual orientation, if
they had new multiple sexual partners inthe last three months. If they answer
yes to either, they would thenbe asked if they had had anal sex
with any of these partners. Ifthey have, they'd be required to wait

(01:08):
three months from when they last hadanal sex to donate. If they had
not met other eligibility criteria, theywould be able to donate. Now,
of course, it's self reported,and it would be interesting to hear how
many women self exclude themselves based onthe questionnaire, or who would Blood services
might challenge their answers, and amore onerous policy is still in place for
organ and tissue donation. Canadian Pressrecently shared a story of Liam d.

(01:30):
Twenty six year old was dying ofa rare cancer that ravaged his organs,
so they were too damaged to donate, but he was still given some peace
by knowing his skin, corneus,tendons, and bones might still go to
someone who needed them, But hedied not knowing they also would be rejected
because of his homosexual status. Onhis medical records, he was considered high
risk because he had sex with aman in the previous five years. His

(01:55):
husband told CP they've been on amonogamous relationship for more than four years,
and he was offended that there wasan assumption that somehow, because they were
in a homosexual relationship, they wereengaged in high risk sex. Now,
Nova Scotia follows the American Association ofTissue Banks regulation for some reason, in
spite of the presumed consent donation linethis home province of Nova Scotia. The

(02:15):
restrictions are federally regulated. Now thereis a rigorous testing process of all donations,
but it's the automatic exclusion that seemsdiscriminatory, and that's why his husband
and his mother are launching a formalhuman rights complaint and it's hard to know
if they'll be successful in challenging thisrule. CP also reported that a twenty
nineteen Federal Standing Committee on Health calledfor an end to organ and tissue donor

(02:36):
policies that it said discriminate against theLGBTQ people because of inequities that community experiences.
Well, it might be too latefor Liam d and his hope of
helping others directly after his death,but sure it would be a fitting tribute
to him to have policies changed,making sure donations are safe and the donors
are treated the same as everybody else. I'm Sheldon McLoud for Saltwire.