Live data from Hacker News

Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

amitguptaneedsyou.com

201–210 of 247 posts

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#201
post #143
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kevin, How do you feel about lying?

I (not Kevin) feel no moral objection to lying for a good cause. If I absolutely know that I am safe, but the policy does not allow me to donate, then I would have no problem lying to save a life. If I (and this is taking extra-wide margins) have not had any sexual contact in the past 12 months (or anything else that leads to something like HIV, such as needle use), and have always tested positive, then any doctor wo…

> and have always tested positive

I think you meant negative there.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#202

Since I'm still gay, I'm not allowed to help, no matter how many times you ask. I get why they do this and I shouldn't let it bother me, but emotionally it feels the same as if they just said, "Please become a donor, nohomo." edit: Of course I still wish the very best for Amit.

I'm still diabetic, so I'm not allowed to help either.

Epileptic here, not allowed either.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still diabetic, so I'm not allowed to help either.

Epileptic here, not allowed either.

Well of course, your blood might make somebody seizure. /outdated science

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#204
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I (not Kevin) feel no moral objection to lying for a good cause. If I absolutely know that I am safe, but the policy does not allow me to donate, then I would have no problem lying to save a life. If I (and this is taking extra-wide margins) have not had any sexual contact in the past 12 months (or anything else that leads to something like HIV, such as needle use), and have always tested positive, then any doctor wo…

> and have always tested positive I think you meant negative there.

Oops, my bad, thanks! Guess it's hard to remember the positive in this instance means bad and negative good at 4am.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#205
post #99

I'm not a gay male but refuse to be part of organizations who discriminate against them. I know they are trying to save lives but eliminating potential matches and discrimination is not the way to do that.

Gay male here, and while I can't speak for everyone, I think I speak for the majority of gay males when I say: please don't do this.

Our biggest concern with these policies is not that we get left out, but that others who might need our help are unable to get it. Your boycott only serves to worsen the situation, sadly.

For vocal support, thankyou, please do continue expressing your opinion (though bare in mind that this kind of discrimination is at least based in logic, allbeit sometimes incorrect logic, and in protecting people, not discrimination for the sake of itself).

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Epileptic here, not allowed either.

Well of course, your blood might make somebody seizure. /outdated science

Actually, it's because of the anti-epileptic medication that is in the blood. Speaking from personal experience.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, as a European I'm Offended. But seriously what's the motivation behind this?

BSE/Mad Cow fears. Because of the BSE outbreak in the UK in the 80s (and the various smaller outbreaks later) the US authorities were scared shitless at some point. So if you've lived 5 or more years in Europe you're banned from donating blood forever. Not sure I understand the logic... Quarantine for a set period I can understand, but banning for life makes little sense. After all there are many blood donors in all…

There is actually logic behind this.

BSE is caused by misfolded proteins called prions[1] which also causes Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease[2] (CJD) in humans. One form of CJD is Kuru[3] which inflicts the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea and is likely transmitted through cannibalism interestingly enough.

There isn't a great depth of understanding of these diseases yet but in the case of Kuru the asymptomatic period has been demonstrated to be somewhere in between several years and several decades[4].

There are no screening tests for prion diseases[5] so the only way to be sure is to not take blood from risk groups.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creutzfeldt%E2%80%93Jakob_disea...

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease)

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease)#Presentation

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creutzfeldt%E2%80%93Jakob_disea...

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#208

I am a south asian male living in the US.I tried to sign up as a donor.Here is my experience. >Your password needs to be between 8 and 15 characters long, must contain at least 1 number and 1 letter and cannot contain spaces. Seriously WTF....I am sure half of the people who wanted to sign up did not just for this bs! Okay chill...password abcd...... > In the past 5 years have you taken money or drugs in exchange for…

Why his friends are searching match in US? Did they try his ancestral place?

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#209
FWIW, it might help if the site mentioned what 'South Asians' means. Not everyone is necessarily familiar with that term.

I've never heard it used here in Australia. We don't have a term for that area. I had to look it up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asia).

(I've emailed them this feedback).

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#210

Since I'm still gay, I'm not allowed to help, no matter how many times you ask. I get why they do this and I shouldn't let it bother me, but emotionally it feels the same as if they just said, "Please become a donor, nohomo." edit: Of course I still wish the very best for Amit.

Get tested for a match anyway - if you match you can always say you didn't read the papers very carefully and that as gay person you can't donate. Then when he dies we have somebody to point to and say "this person could have been saved, but for your bigotry".

You think the FDA / NMDP are making medical policy based on bigotry and not on statistical analysis of pathogen distribution?

FWIW surely the measure is whether you're in a risk group for transmission of disease, like being European (wrt CJD).

Also it would be "since I have homosexual sex". It's not your proclivity that's being challenged it's actions which are known to put one at greater risk of carrying certain pathogens that are detrimental to a donee.

Of course it could go down differently to how you say: He lies, the person gets a temporary reprieve and then dies from some other pathogen that the donor wasn't aware that they have but that the medics were trying to account for by ruling out those having homosexual sex.

Post reply on HN