Above: A blood donation crime ring
I donated blood the other day. Not because I want to go up to people and say "Hey look at me! I'm a good person!", as I think most people do when they donate blood. Rather it was part of an experiment in alternative medicine. Allow me to explain.
For many thousands of years bloodletting was considered a valid medical practice. In bloodletting, a person is cut so that they bleed. It was, and by some is believed to have curative effects. While this may help a tiny bit with Staph infections (don't try it at home folks!) because the Staph bacteria feed on the iron present in blood, I don't see how it could have any real curative effect.
I was delighted to discover that the local blood drive coincided with my discovery of a cyst under my left arm pit. I would have an experiment to run. The last time I had such a cyst, it was much larger, and infected. While the treatment did involve a fluid being drained, it was puss rather than blood. This cyst being being uninfected, and somewhat smaller, I thought that blood donation should be tried.
I walked to the area set aside for donation, and they ask to see ID, both to prove my age (one must be 17 or older) and to make sure that I am not lieing about my identity. Having most of it at home, I was at a loss for what to do, untill I discovered an old, though usable ID on my person. Next, I had to fill out a form. It asked me a number of personal questions. I felt a flare of annoyence when I saw the question about whether or not I had ever had sex with other men. Gay people get enough trouble from society, now they cannot donate blood? Its absurd.
Article comments
1 - Aaman
Fixed yr html link in yr article - it was causing problems on the front page - interesting read, and interesting selection of Amazon link
2 - NancyGail
I suspect they ask about sex not because being gay makes a difference, but rather the transfer of bodily fluids which can trasnmit disease (and not just AIDS). I know someone who died from AIDS after receiving a blood transfer because there was contamination.
3 - Jon Berman
A transfer of body fluids takes place in both heterosexual, and homosexual sex. I don't mention it in the article, but the reasoning that they give is that homosexual sex between men is flagged by them as a 'high risk' behavior for the transmission of HIV. Anouther 'high risk' behavior they flag is prostitution. My comment in the article is not meant to impugn the blood collectors, it is just because it is another block making life harder for gays.
4 - Angela Chen Shui
Interesting... thanks for sharing.
Of course, bloodletting was part of the then 'established' form of medicine, wasn't it?