Colombian Constitutional Court Rules Ban on Blood Donations by Gay Men Unconstitutional

The Constitutional Court of Colombia ruled that sexual orientation can not be a criterion to prevent blood donation.

For this reason, it ordered the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to assess the current regulations on receipt, extraction and supply of blood donations "in order to eliminate the donor selection criteria based on sexual orientation irrigation rating criteria of infectious diseases like HIV. "

The regulations referenced is resolution 901 of 1996, which created the Manual of technical standards and administrative procedures in blood banks which established as a criterion to question the potential male whether or not he had sex with other men.

The Court ordered the Ministry that the regulation of blood donation must be directed to verify and identify high or low degrees of risk depending on the person's sexual behavior and not the person's sexual orientation as diverse sexual orientations per se is not a de facto risk and, such change is needed to prevent a discriminatory act.

"The risk of contamination depends on the risk behavior, not of the donor population. Thus, a heterosexual who has sex with strangers without permanent protection is much more likely to get HIV, than a homosexual man with a steady partner and using protection. The measure does not reveal this fact, which then make it useless and inadequate. Policy should focus on screening all donors for highly risky behaviors, instead of excluding donors based on who you choose to have sex with," the Court considered.

The court also felt that including sexual orientation as a criterion is also unnecessary because blood banks are required to perform HIV testing to all the blood they receive from donors in general so the questions put to donors can not be the only information to be considered.

The court also ordered the Ministry of Health to design guidelines, training programs and plans aimed at health professionals and laboratories on how to conduct surveys and interviews with prospective donors, regardless of sexual orientation as a criterion.

The determination of the Court was to analyze the case of a man whom a laboratory in Bucaramanga did not allowed him to donate blood voluntarily because he is gay.

Source: eluniversal