Gay Men Banned From Being Anonymous Sperm Donors

FDA to enforce new rules

Any man who has engaged in homosexual sex in the last five years will be banned from serving as an anonymous sperm donor, according to new rules suggested by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA insists that, collectively, gay men pose a higher risk of carrying the AIDS virus. Critics, however, are accusing the FDA of stigmatizing all gay men rather than focusing on screening the high-risk sexual behavior of any would-be donor, despite their sexual preference. “Under these rules, a heterosexual man who had unprotected sex with HIV-positive prostitutes would be OK as a donor one year later, but a gay man in a monogamous, safe-sex relationship is not OK unless he’s been celibate for five years,” said Leland Traiman, director of a clinic in Alameda, Calif. Others have already begun rejecting gay sperm donors. “With an anonymous sperm donor, you can’t be too careful,” said Eleanor Nicoll of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. (MSNBC)

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