After failing to get a response from
the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Massachusetts Senator John
Kerry has drafted a second letter asking the agency to justify its
lifetime ban on blood donated by gay men.
Seventeen Democratic lawmakers joined
Kerry last Thursday in asking FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to
reverse the policy.
Instead, the agency quickly issued a
statement to the press, stating that the ban “is based on current
science and data.”
Kerry said he was “surprised to
discover that, rather than respond to our letter, the FDA apparently
immediately released a statement to the press dismissing our call for
a review,” in his second letter to Hamburg issued Tuesday.
“We did not write to the FDA to
defend the people's desire to donate blood,” he added. “Please
share with us the current science and data referenced in your
statement used to continue to justify this policy.”
In the original letter, the lawmakers
argued that the ban specifically singles out gay men and is
“scientifically unsound” in asking for its end.
“Prospective donors who have engaged
in heterosexual sexual activity with a person known to have HIV are
deferred for one year. At the same time, male donors who engaged in
protected homosexual sexual activity with a monogamous partner 26
years ago are deferred for life.”
“The ban also does not distinguish
between safe and unprotected sexual activity. As a result, healthy
blood donors are turned away every day due to an antiquated policy
and our blood supply is not necessarily any safer for it.”
The policy, which rejects men who have
had a sexual relationship with another man since 1977 from donating
blood, is unnecessary because of technological advances, the
lawmakers said.
“We live in a very different country
than we did in 1983. Today, the high-risk behaviors associated with
HIV contraction are more fully understood and dramatic technological
improvements have been made in HIV detection. … As a result [of
screening], the blood banking community believes that the lifetime
deferral is no longer necessary to protect the integrity of the blood
banks.”
In addition to Kerry, the letter was
also signed by Democratic Senators Kirstin Gillibrand of New York,
Dick Durbin of Illinois, Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Sheldon Whitehouse
of Rhode Island, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Frank Lautenberg of New
Jersey, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Russ
Feingold of Wisconsin, Mark Udall of Colorado, Al Franken of
Minnesota, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Carl Levin of Michigan, Tom
Harkin of Iowa, Mark Begich of Alaska, Roland Burris of Illinois and
Michael Bennet of Colorado.