Gay Teen’s Eyes Rejected For Organ Donation


A gay teen’s eyes were rejected for organ donation by the Food and Drug Administration because of his sexual orientation. The teen, Alexander “AJ” Betts, attempted suicide in July 2013 and died shortly after. His mother, Sheryl Moore, said he was outed as gay about a year and a half before his death.

Betts requested before his death to have his organs donated. A letter Moore received from the FDA explained that her son’s kidneys, liver, heart, and lungs were donated, but his eyes were rejected for organ donation.

Moore told KCCI, “My initial feeling was just very angry because I couldn’t understand why my 16-year-old son’s eyes couldn’t be donated just because he was gay.”

The rejection happened because of a FDA regulation enacted decades ago at the height of the AIDS epidemic. The regulation makes would-be donors ineligible to donate certain organs if they may have a “risk factor” for communicable diseases.

In the gay teen’s case, Moore couldn’t confirm whether her son had been sexually active or not before his death. Therefore, the donor network had to assume he was sexually active and ineligible to donate tissue or his eyes.

Moore called her gay teen’s eye rejection “archaic,” saying, “it is just silly that people wouldn’t get the life-saving assistance they need because of regulations that are 30 years old.”

The Washington Post notes that organs and tissue aren’t the only things gay men cannot donate. They are also banned for life from giving blood if they have had sex with other men. The FDA explains that men who have had sex with men “at any time since 1977 are currently deferred as blood donors.”

The FDA cites “a history of male-to-male sex is associated with an increased risk for exposure to and transmission of certain infectious diseases, including HIV.”

Critics have long called the policy discriminatory, considering the FDA allows donations from heterosexuals who have slept with an HIV-positive person or commercial sex worker after one year. Many experts say it is a contradiction, though the FDA defends its position.

The administration explains that its “deferral policy is based on the documented increased risk” of transfusion transmissible infections like HIV “associated with male-to-male sex.” It adds that it “is not based on any judgment concerning the donor’s sexual orientation.”

Glenn Cohen, a bioethics law professor at the Harvard Law School, believes it’s time for a change. Moore hopes that the news of her gay teen’s organ donation rejection will spread awareness and result in change of the policy.

[Image: KCCI]

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