Most gays ruled out as organ donors is wrong.

A Health Canada regulation that bans most gay men from donating organs is scientifically unjustified, virtually unenforceable and could worsen critical transplant shortages. The regulation, which took effect in December 2007 and closely resembles blood-donor guidelines, prohibits organ donations from sexually active gay men, along with intravenous drug users and hepatitis victims.

Admittedly, this used to be a problem because thousands of gays had HIV which led to full blown AIDS but over the years, blood testing improved. Current HIV screening tests can confirm the infection-free status of donated organs rapidly and with virtual certainty. The only risk would come from donors in the so-called window period when they've been recently infected. HIV can incubate for 20 days or more before becoming detectable.

These restrictions are unfair to thousands of conscientious gays who take precautions when having sex by using condoms. The chances of gay monogamous couples being at risk are no more riskier than monogamous heterosexual couples being at risk. It's been known for 20 years that the risk factor is not in being gay but in participating in risky sexual behaviour. Heterosexual men and women can just as easily get HIV if they don’t use a condom. However being heterosexual doesn’t exclude the possibility that one can be infected with HIV. Recently, a study of university students showed that one-third of the women who claimed that they had only one male sexual partner admitted that they also were infected with HIV within a year of the relationship.

I should point out that having oral sex is not risky as far as being infected with HIV because the acid in the stomach kills the virus immediately before it can get into the blood stream.

It’s ridiculous for Health Canada to state that gays or lesbians cannot donate their organs if they die. To exclude bona fide donors because they've had sex with another man would exclude a lot of people who are no risk at all. This foolishness places an unreasonable restriction on the need for transplant organs at a time when the need is growing more urgent.

Dr. Gary Levy, head of Canada's largest organ transplant program, says he believes that someone who has been in a monogamous relationship for 30 years, regardless of the gender of their partner, is a safe situation where their organs could be transplanted at no risk to a recipient.

In the end, transplant surgeons will continue to make the final decision on which organs are suitable for use. Many organs from known gay men have been used in his program in the past after physicians determined from retrieval agencies that the donor's sexual behaviour did not carry a significant HIV risk. Under the new regulation, however, surgeons will have to sign a form stating they authorized the use of an organ that would normally be excluded.

In the vast majority of organ donation cases, sexual history is assessed through interviews with relatives of the deceased. Even if donor cards have been signed, the families or the courts must give permission for harvesting organs in Ontario.

The Health Canada regulation is fundamentally flawed because the organ harvesting system depends entirely on the goodwill and honesty of donors or their families.

Imagine if you will that you need a heart transplant and if you don’t get it, you won’t last a week. How will you feel about Health Canada if you learn that the heart of a young male that could be used to replace yours, won’t be used merely because the deceased donor was gay?