TheOtherDave comments on Efficient Charity: Do Unto Others... - Less Wrong

130 Post author: Yvain 24 December 2010 09:26PM

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Comment author: TheOtherDave 30 December 2010 05:35:54PM 0 points [-]

Mostly, my faith in the quality of the blood supply derives from what testing they're doing to the blood, not from what unenforceable policies they're suggesting to the donors.

I'd actually be surprised if the latter significantly affected the quality of the blood.

Mostly, I think the problem they are a solution for is maintaining public confidence in the blood supply. Which I acknowledge is an important problem. And it may well be that being perceived as excluding gay men and their partners is a better solution to that problem than anything else they might do; I don't know.

That said, if I'm wrong and these policies really do solve a problem related to the blood supply, yet another possible solution is: don't allow people who have had unprotected sex to donate.

Or, if that's too big a chunk of your potential donor base, make it people who have had unprotected sex outside of a monogamous relationship.