The German Ministry of Health has drafted a reform that aims to eliminate the specific restrictions that currently exist for homosexuals who want to donate blood, so that there is no minimum waiting period since the last sexual intercourse.
The current law establishes that men who have relations with other men cannot donate until four months after the last relationship, whereas in the case of heterosexual persons this period is only contemplated in the case of «frequent» changes of partner.
The German Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, has presented a bill with which he wants to amend the transfusion law and in which it is stated: «sexual orientation and gender identity should not be criteria for exclusion or temporary postponement».
It wants the German Medical Association to amend its guidelines, which were adopted in theory to prevent the «risk of transmission of serious blood-borne infectious diseases». The government wants this risk to be considered on a case-by-case basis and not on the basis of sexual orientation, according to the text accessed by the DPA agency.
«The College of Physicians must finally understand what has long been a consensus in social life,» Lauterbach explained to the RND media network. This development was already part of the tripartite agreement to form the coalition currently led by Olaf Scholz and including Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
