Challenging the blood donation ban on LGBTQ+ individuals in India

a medico-legal and public policy analysis

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18316/redes.v13i1.11934

Keywords:

Discrimination, Stigma, Equality, Policy, blood donation, LGBTQ+, blood donor ban, Gender Identity

Abstract

This paper both historicizes and contextualizes the contemporary US Food and Drug Administration(FDA)  blood donation policy banning men who have sex with men and transgender individuals although in 2023 they have changed their old policies and made new recommendations where MSM and LGBTQ+ community can donate blood but coming to India we are still following the age-old policies. These policies found their roots in the 1980s at the outset of the HIV/AIDS crisis, when fear and misinformation coupled the disease first and foremost with homosexual men, leading to lasting stigmatization and discriminatory practices. Yet, with all the strides made in blood testing technology and a better understanding of the HIV transmission process, such archaic policies thrive not just in India but in several other countries also. The paper contributed to this area while summarizing the evolution of knowledge on HIV, the window period for HIV detection, and international blood donation guidelines and argued that the blanket ban is not only lacking in scientific basis but also constitutionally unsound and violated basic human rights. It discriminates against gay men in monogamous relationships wherein heterosexual men who have multiple sexual partners are given the chance to be blood donors. This paper wishes the Indian government to act on rational reasoning with scientific grounds regarding blood donation, and eligibility where there can be deferrals of 90 days for MSM and transgender persons. These policies, upon updating, shall massively add to the potential blood donor pool that would save thousands of lives. This could best be crowned by the replacement of stigma with science on the road to a safe, inclusive blood donation.

Author Biographies

Niteesh Kumar Upadhyay, Associate Professor Symbiosis Law School, Noida, and Research Fellow Tashkent State Law University, Uzbekistan.

Dr. Niteesh Kumar Upadhyay is an Associate Professor of Law at Symbiosis Law School, Noida, and a Research Fellow at Tashkent State Law University, Uzbekistan, with additional roles as a guest faculty at Romanian American University and an international research fellow at the University of Milan. He holds a doctorate from WB National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, and has over 35 publications, with extensive international experience and numerous scholarships and grants. Recently, he was appointed to the Academic Friends Network of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee.

Sangeeta Taak, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab and Research fellow Tashkent State Law University, Uzbekistan

Dr. Sangeeta Taak is Doctor of Law and an Assistant Professor of Law at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab, India. She is a Research Fellow at Central Asian Legal Research (CALR), Tashkent State University of Law (TSUL), at Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Ardyllis Alves Soares, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul

Doctor and Master of Law at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil, with visiting scholarship at Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen - Germany. Visiting Professor at Università degli Studi di Sassari (2022). Professor and Attorney of Law. 

Pyali Chatterjee, ICFAI University, Raipur, Chattisgarh,India and Research Fellow at Tashkent State University of Law, Uzbekistan.

Dr.Pyali Chatterjee is Doctor of Law and an Assistant Professor at Faculty of Law, ICFAI University, Raipur, India. She is a Research Fellow at Central Asian Legal Research (CALR), Tashkent State University of Law (TSUL), at Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

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Published

2025-04-30

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Vol. 13 No. 1 (2025)

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