Donor Dilemma: Protesters get personal on organ donation policy
Heather Sutherland
Issue date: 3/18/08 Section: Focus
The Charlatan (Carleton University)
OTTAWA (CUP) - For Jeremie Tremblay, 18, the ban on organs from gay donors really hits home.
The multi-coloured flag draped across Tremblay's back stood out in the dreary weather on the day of a protest against Health Canada's policy that bans organ donations by men who have had sex with men due to an increased risk of being HIV positive. The protest was held on Parliament Hill on Feb. 26.
Tremblay, an Algonquin College student, said he was outraged when he heard about the policy, which was announced in late December 2007.
"My uncle actually needs a kidney," he said. "And I was one of the only matches for him, which I found out a couple weeks ago."
Tremblay said he talked to his uncle's doctor, but he was told he is unable to donate his kidney because he has had sexual relations with another man within the past five years.
"I could save my uncle instead of having him wait on this list," he said.
Tremblay added his uncle did not know about his sexual orientation and this was how he had to tell his uncle, in addition to telling him he could not donate his kidney.
As a co-founder of a Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transsexual Queer society at Algonquin, he said the protest was a great event to bring light to the issue.
The message, he said, is that the ban needs to end now. "[It's] science, not stereotypes," he explained at the protest, as the crowd chanted the same slogan.
Many people opposed to the ban feel that the policy is based in ideological discrimination rather than medical evidence, arguing that high-risk sexual behaviours are what put an individual in jeopardy of contracting the HIV virus, not sexual orientation. Also, there are questions as to how valid the ban is since, according to the Canadian Aids Society, women, not homosexuals, are the fastest growing segment of the population contracting AIDS.
After travelling six hours from London, Lara Vlach joined the crowd to protest what she calls a "ludicrous" policy.
OTTAWA (CUP) - For Jeremie Tremblay, 18, the ban on organs from gay donors really hits home.
The multi-coloured flag draped across Tremblay's back stood out in the dreary weather on the day of a protest against Health Canada's policy that bans organ donations by men who have had sex with men due to an increased risk of being HIV positive. The protest was held on Parliament Hill on Feb. 26.
Tremblay, an Algonquin College student, said he was outraged when he heard about the policy, which was announced in late December 2007.
"My uncle actually needs a kidney," he said. "And I was one of the only matches for him, which I found out a couple weeks ago."
Tremblay said he talked to his uncle's doctor, but he was told he is unable to donate his kidney because he has had sexual relations with another man within the past five years.
"I could save my uncle instead of having him wait on this list," he said.
Tremblay added his uncle did not know about his sexual orientation and this was how he had to tell his uncle, in addition to telling him he could not donate his kidney.
As a co-founder of a Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transsexual Queer society at Algonquin, he said the protest was a great event to bring light to the issue.
The message, he said, is that the ban needs to end now. "[It's] science, not stereotypes," he explained at the protest, as the crowd chanted the same slogan.
Many people opposed to the ban feel that the policy is based in ideological discrimination rather than medical evidence, arguing that high-risk sexual behaviours are what put an individual in jeopardy of contracting the HIV virus, not sexual orientation. Also, there are questions as to how valid the ban is since, according to the Canadian Aids Society, women, not homosexuals, are the fastest growing segment of the population contracting AIDS.
After travelling six hours from London, Lara Vlach joined the crowd to protest what she calls a "ludicrous" policy.
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