Blood Supply
Case Teaching Resources
FROM THE EVANS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Box 353055 · University of W ashington · Seattle W A
98195-3055
www.hallway.org
Science, Discrimination, and the Blood Supply: San José State University’s Blood Drive Ban
San José State University Suspends Campus Blood Drives On January 29, 2008, Don W. Kassing, President of San José State University (SJSU), announced that he was suspending indefinitely all blood drives taking place on the SJSU campus, plus any drives taking place elsewhere that were arranged by employees representing the University or by official student organizations. In a letter to the campus community, Kassing explained that the ban was a result of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s lifetime blood donor deferral policy for homosexual men. The policy disallows men who have engaged in sexual activity with another man since 1977 from contributing to the blood supply. Following an investigation prompted by concerns about the fairness of the policy brought to the campus Office for Equal Opportunity by a University employee, Kassing and his administrative staff determined that holding campus blood drives that denied participation to men who engage in sexual activity with other men violated the public University’s non-discrimination policy, which explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (see Exhibit A). In justifying the decision, Kassing’s letter to the campus community noted that the FDA’s policy was enacted in 1983 when the risks of AIDS transmission via blood transfusion were first recognized but argued that the policy had never been relaxed even as blood testing technology reduced current risks to levels so low that experts could no longer measure them directly. In fact, he pointed out that AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks), America’s Blood Centers and the American Red Cross all had reviewed data on the risks and taken the position that the
FROM THE EVANS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Box 353055 · University of W ashington · Seattle W A
98195-3055
www.hallway.org
Science, Discrimination, and the Blood Supply: San José State University’s Blood Drive Ban
San José State University Suspends Campus Blood Drives On January 29, 2008, Don W. Kassing, President of San José State University (SJSU), announced that he was suspending indefinitely all blood drives taking place on the SJSU campus, plus any drives taking place elsewhere that were arranged by employees representing the University or by official student organizations. In a letter to the campus community, Kassing explained that the ban was a result of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s lifetime blood donor deferral policy for homosexual men. The policy disallows men who have engaged in sexual activity with another man since 1977 from contributing to the blood supply. Following an investigation prompted by concerns about the fairness of the policy brought to the campus Office for Equal Opportunity by a University employee, Kassing and his administrative staff determined that holding campus blood drives that denied participation to men who engage in sexual activity with other men violated the public University’s non-discrimination policy, which explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (see Exhibit A). In justifying the decision, Kassing’s letter to the campus community noted that the FDA’s policy was enacted in 1983 when the risks of AIDS transmission via blood transfusion were first recognized but argued that the policy had never been relaxed even as blood testing technology reduced current risks to levels so low that experts could no longer measure them directly. In fact, he pointed out that AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks), America’s Blood Centers and the American Red Cross all had reviewed data on the risks and taken the position that the