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

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

#241

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 6:24 AM UTC

jinfiesto wrote: post #231

tibbon wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The policy still doesn't add up. They really should just ask anyone if they've had unsafe sex outside of a monogamous and std tested relationship in 3/12 months. I could very well have had sex with 100 women in the past 3 months (as a man) and been unsafe with all of them. Yet, they don't seem to be the least bit worried about that scenario.

While I support allowing homosexuals to donate, I don't think your comparison is fair. Having 100 random sexual encounters with randomly sampled women leaves you approximately a 50% chance of having unprotected sex with someone who has HIV. Not to mention, HIV may not even be transmitted even if you have an encounter. On the other hand, after 100 random homosexual MSM encounters, your chances of having had unprotecte…

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

#242

Post by chronomex » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 8:22 AM UTC

jinfiesto wrote: post #231

tibbon wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The policy still doesn't add up. They really should just ask anyone if they've had unsafe sex outside of a monogamous and std tested relationship in 3/12 months. I could very well have had sex with 100 women in the past 3 months (as a man) and been unsafe with all of them. Yet, they don't seem to be the least bit worried about that scenario.

While I support allowing homosexuals to donate, I don't think your comparison is fair. Having 100 random sexual encounters with randomly sampled women leaves you approximately a 50% chance of having unprotected sex with someone who has HIV. Not to mention, HIV may not even be transmitted even if you have an encounter. On the other hand, after 100 random homosexual MSM encounters, your chances of having had unprotecte…

Please, provide citations for your figures.

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

#243

Post by CamperBob » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 9:30 AM UTC

hartror wrote: post #240

CamperBob wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the connection between cannibals in New Guinea and European blood/marrow donors?

Not sure how I can make it clearer but I will try. Because Europeans have an increased risk* of having the prion disease BSE they aren't ever allowed to donate. The reasons for this are a similar prion disease in New Guinea has been shown to have a very long asymptomatic period measured in decades. And since there is no screening for prions and no one is sure how long prion diseases remain asymptomatic all Europeans…

I guess I woke up on the wrong side of the rabbit hole. When I went to bed, Papua New Guinea was about nine thousand miles from Brussels.

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

#244

Post by dlikhten » Fri, Dec 02, 2011, 2:42 PM UTC

hartror wrote: post #240

CamperBob wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the connection between cannibals in New Guinea and European blood/marrow donors?

Not sure how I can make it clearer but I will try. Because Europeans have an increased risk* of having the prion disease BSE they aren't ever allowed to donate. The reasons for this are a similar prion disease in New Guinea has been shown to have a very long asymptomatic period measured in decades. And since there is no screening for prions and no one is sure how long prion diseases remain asymptomatic all Europeans…

Funny thing here. The probability of Prion Disease is very small. VERY small. Statistically speaking, the barring of blood donation costs us significantly more lives than the contamination possibility. Yes its unfortunate some people will develop prion disease, but... you get it.

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

#245

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Dec 03, 2011, 12:37 AM UTC

dantheman wrote: post #135

nostromo wrote: post #78

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 think that even at a certain point the risk of AIDS (I assume this is the reason) is better than death; so they should let in everyone letting both parties know the risks and say, we can wait longer or you can take this chance.

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

#246

Post by Fliko » Sat, Dec 03, 2011, 5:37 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #230

echo-unity wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Morbid way of proving a point, don't you think?

If there was a better way, I would take it. But often people don't react until you can point to somebody and say "because of direct consequences of this policy, this person is no longer alive". It is even better if you can show his family crying. Personally I would prefer getting them to fix it without getting anybody killed. But that may be too much to ask.

Yes you save more people in the short term but the risk for disease transmission jumps up quite a lot. I'm sure that not even the doctors really like the fact of the matter but they have to accept it because they must save lives and not take them away for short term benefit.

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

#247

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Dec 04, 2011, 11:01 AM UTC

gte910h wrote: post #228

zasz wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if you were too much of a lazy douche to fill out a couple extra fields, they're supposed to believe you'd go through the actual effort of becoming a donor because...?

I'm sorry, you're under the impression people who think of helping this man are under obligation to do so. Anything that makes more successful donations less likely is bad. Asking for invasive personal information without justifying it in such a way that people are comfortable giving it is BAD. The fact the guy you're responding to points out something on a site with enough gravitas that is an impediment to the proce…

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