Nova Scotia mom wants policy change for organ, tissue donors after gay son’s death
Jacob MacDonald said he and Dee married in March 2022, but nine days later his husband was diagnosed with an aggressive liposarcoma, which formed a large tumour in his chest.
A spokesman for Nova Scotia Health said men who have sex with men are asked about any high-risk behaviour over the last 12 months if they want to donate organs, in keeping with a national standard, even for those in a monogamous relationship.But the abstinence requirement in that province is even longer when it comes to potential tissue donation from that group, Brendan Elliott said in an emailed response.
“Health Canada will engage the CSA technical committee in 2023 to discuss the potential for changes to the donor screening criteria.” Overall, those policies lead to stigma against LGBTQ people, even if they are in a monogamous relationship, use condoms and do not have anal sex, which is associated with a higher chance of transmitting HIV, he said.Leeies’s report on current “discriminatory” policies was published this week by a Vancouver non-profit called the Community-Based Research Centre , which promotes the health of people from diverse sexualities.
CBRC’s recent recommendations to Health Canada include revising current eligibility for organ and tissue donation to be behaviour-based and not identity-based, and mandate that Nucleic Acid Testing be used for any donors who are considered to be an “increased infectious risk” based on “updated, evidence-informed, risk-based criteria.”
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