UNITED KINGDOM – Following the announcement by U.K. health ministers that the rules allowing gay and bisexual men to donate blood if they refrain from sex for 12 months, would be relaxed, Edwin Poots, Northern Ireland’s health minister, has refused to lift the lifetime ban in Northern Ireland.
On Nov. 7 the ban will be lifted in England, Wales and Scotland.
The Belfast Telegraph reported that Poots said he believed the current position in Northern Ireland “should not be altered” and in a written response to an Ulster Unionist Party Member, the minister said he had come to the controversial decision because of safety concerns.
“The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) has confirmed that the risk of HIV infection would, although by a small margin, increase as a result of a relaxation in the present lifetime deferral,” he said.
Gay rights campaigner Mag Lochlainn said, “I am very surprised that a minister who is a member of a unionist party should consider what is good enough for British people in the rest of the U.K. is not good enough for British people in Northern Ireland,” reported the Telegraph.
Ulster Unionist Party health spokesman John McCallister was “bewildered” by the health minister’s decision. He said, “We cannot turn willing blood donors away because of out-dated and irrational prejudice.”
