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The importation of blood from the UK by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service<\/a> (IBTS) this summer drew attention to the rules that forbid sexually active gay men from donating blood in Ireland<\/a>, compared to more nuanced criteria for gay blood donors in the UK and many other countries.<\/p>\n

In fact, some would argue that importing the blood made the Irish rules \u2013 whereby gay men are only allowed to donate blood if they have been sexually inactive for a year or more \u2013 seem absurd. Blood donated in the UK, which includes blood donated by gay or bisexual men if they have had the same partner for three months or more, is deemed safe to import into Ireland. In Ireland, a man who has had oral or anal sex with another man in the past 12 months is banned from donating blood, even if he uses a condom.<\/p>\n

This current one-year deferral was introduced in 2016 and replaced a lifelong ban on men who have sex with men from donating blood. The UK blood donation rules for men who have sex with men were changed from 12 months to a three-month deferral in 2017. Northern Ireland<\/a> made this change in 2020.<\/p>\n

Discriminates<\/h4>\n

Health researcher James Larkin<\/a> says it is not acceptable to have a blood donation policy in Ireland that still unnecessarily discriminates against gay men, albeit to a lesser extent. \u201cIt\u2019s hard not to ascribe this to homophobia,\u201d says Larkin, who is studying for a PhD in health economics at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland.<\/p>\n

He acknowledges that there is a higher rate of HIV amongst the male homosexual population than most other populations. But, he argues that people engaging in risky sexual behaviour, be they heterosexual or homosexual, have an even higher rate of HIV.<\/p>\n

Larkin suggests it would be fairer if the IBTS focused on risky sexual behaviour instead of sexual orientation. \u201cIt\u2019s unlikely that the risk [of transfusion-transmissible infections] is lower in a heterosexual person having anal sex with multiple partners than a homosexual person having oral sex once in the last year,\u201d says Larkin.<\/p>\n