A Stitch in Haste

The American Red Cross has lost its third president in a decade:

[Marsha] Evans was hired in 2002 after the stormy departure of its former CEO, Bernadine Healy, who was forced out in 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Jack McGuire, executive vice president of the Red Cross' biomedical services, has been named interim president and chief executive, the charity said today.

"The organization will maintain its current strategy, direction and programs and will continue to ensure the continuity and stability of ongoing Red Cross operations," the Red Cross said in a statement on its Web site.

If McGuire, a biomedical insider, were to become the permanent president of the ARC, then perhaps that would be an opportunity for the American Red Cross to revisit its ongoing support of the archaic, ineffective and insultory practice of banning any male potential blood donor who has ever had any homosexual intercourse, ever. (Recall that the gay blood donor ban is actually an FDA policy, but the ARC has been fully supportive of the ban since it was implemented.)

All donated blood is already tested for HIV (and other diseases). Blood can be preserved long enough to re-test after the incubation period for HIV. In short, there is already far less risk — and that could become zero risk — from transmitting HIV through donated blood than there is from the alternative: not having enough donated blood to meet healthcare needs.

It isn't just about the indignity and illogic of the gay blood ban. It isn't just about the legitimacy that the (putatively "scientific") ban provides for bona fide anti-gay bigots. It is also about saving lives. The gay blood ban unnecessarily worsens an already critical blood shortage.

The shakeup at the ARC may be "only" about money and possible mismanagement. But that doesn't mean that other aspects of the ARC's operations can't also be shaken up a bit.

Because this is one ARC policy that certainly needs shaking up.