The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to the dismay of gay-rights activists, is recommending that any man who has had sex with another man in the previous five years be barred from serving as an anonymous sperm donor.
In rejecting demands to scrap the provision, the agency is insisting that gay men collectively pose a higher-than-average risk of carrying the AIDS virus. Accusations of the stigmatisation of all gay men has been levelled at the organisation with critics saying that the adoption of a screening process that focuses on high-risk sexual behaviour by any donor, gay or straight would be a much fairer policy.
Leland Traiman, director of a clinic in Alameda, Calif., that seeks gay sperm donors, says that under the new rules, a heterosexual man who had unprotected sex with HIV-positive prostitutes would be accepted as a donor one year later, but a gay man in a monogamous, safe-sex relationship is not unless he has been celibate for five years.
Traiman says adequate safety assurances can be provided by testing a sperm donor at the time of the initial donation, then freezing the sperm for a six-month quarantine, then, re- testing the donor again to be sure there is no new sign of HIV or other infectious diseases.
Despite disagreement over whether the FDA guideline regarding gay men will have the force of law, most doctors and clinics are expected to observe it.