Nova Scotia mom wants policy change for organ, tissue donors after gay son’s death | 24CA News
When Liam Dee started receiving hospice care shortly after beginning his nursing profession, he knew the uncommon most cancers that had ravaged his physique meant his organs have been too broken to donate. But the 26-year-old was grateful his tissues, together with pores and skin, corneas, tendons and bones, might nonetheless go to individuals who wanted them.
However, his tissues have been rejected when he died final November, mentioned his mom Cindy Gates-Dee, who realized from studying her son’s medical data that his “homosexual status,” as famous on a screening kind by a tissue specialist, meant he was declined as a high-risk donor as a result of he’d had intercourse with one other man within the final 5 years.
But neither she nor Dee’s husband was requested any questions on Dee’s way of life to find out the likelihood of high-risk behaviour that specialists consider result in elevated danger of HIV or hepatitis B and hepatitis C, Gates-Dee mentioned from Aylesford, N.S.
“Huge assumptions were made. I know that my son would have been upset,” mentioned Gates-Dee, including he’d registered as an organ donor lengthy earlier than 2021, when Nova Scotia turned the primary province the place residents are presumed to comply with donate their organs and tissue after they die, until they decide out of this system.
“It is obvious that Liam had been discriminated against,” she mentioned.
Her mission now’s to file a case with the Canadian Human Rights Commission so others will not be stigmatized, she mentioned, and folks on lengthy wait lists for organs and tissues will not be disadvantaged of them.
“If he couldn’t leave a legacy in helping other people with his tissues, then at least I could try to help change some of these policies.”
Jacob MacDonald mentioned he and Dee married in March 2022, however 9 days later his husband was recognized with an aggressive liposarcoma, which shaped a big tumour in his chest.
“Liam and I were in a monogamous relationship for more than four years,” he mentioned. “I take a lot of offence to the assumption that just because we were in a homosexual relationship that we were having high-risk sex,” MacDonald mentioned.
“I would like to see a change that would reflect more on people’s behaviours rather than just their sexual identity. Because they’re writing off an entire group of people that could be donors.”
A spokesman for Nova Scotia Health mentioned males who’ve intercourse with males are requested about any high-risk behaviour over the past 12 months in the event that they wish to donate organs, in line with a nationwide customary, even for these in a monogamous relationship.
But the abstinence requirement in that province is even longer in terms of potential tissue donation from that group, Brendan Elliott mentioned in an emailed response.
“We follow the American Association of Tissue Banks regulation, which includes a five-year timeline,” he mentioned of the province that sends its tissue to the United States for processing.
Grant-Dee mentioned she was not made conscious of any such coverage when her son was in a hospice.
Screening a possible cell or tissue donor usually entails reviewing medical data, an interview with the donor or an in depth member of the family or doctor, along with laboratory and medical testing.
Health Canada, which is chargeable for imposing rules on human cells, tissues and organs for transplantation, mentioned all potential donors have to be assessed to make sure they might not be transmitting any infectious ailments to recipients.
Regulations are primarily based on requirements set by the Canadian Standards Association. They embrace an evaluation of any high-risk behaviour and “are not intended to be discriminatory against specific groups,” Health Canada mentioned in an emailed response.
“Health Canada will engage the CSA technical committee in 2023 to discuss the potential for changes to the (men who have sex with men) donor screening criteria.”
Organs resembling coronary heart, lungs and kidneys are labelled as coming from “increased infectious risk donors” if these organs have been donated by a person who had intercourse with a person within the final 12 months. But the organs could be transplanted with the consent of a recipient who might have been on an extended wait checklist, primarily based on Health Canada’s “exceptional distribution process.”
“This abstinence period doesn’t make sense, it’s too long,” mentioned Dr. Murdoch Leeies, an organ donation specialist and researcher on the University of Manitoba.
Tissues are routinely rejected because of the similar abstinence standards, however in provinces resembling Nova Scotia, the place the tissues are despatched for processing within the U.S. and the standards is ready by the Food and Drug Administration, males who’ve intercourse with males should have been abstinent for 5 years, amounting to a “more discriminatory process,” Leeies mentioned.
Overall, these insurance policies result in stigma in opposition to LGBTQ individuals, even when they’re in a monogamous relationship, use condoms and would not have anal intercourse, which is related to the next likelihood of transmitting HIV, he mentioned.
Leeies’s report on present “discriminatory” insurance policies was printed this week by a Vancouver non-profit referred to as the Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC), which promotes the well being of individuals from various sexualities.
In an interview, Leeies mentioned the abstinence interval needs to be lowered to 30 days for males who’ve intercourse with males as a result of HIV could be detected via the Nucleic Acid Test (NAT) about seven days after somebody is uncovered to the virus. The check is just not often provided to organ donors however is at the moment mandated by Health Canada for “increased risk donors,” he added.
A less expensive antibody/antigen check is routinely used to display screen for HIV and generally the virus could be detected 35 days after somebody is uncovered although it’s doable for HIV to go undetected by this check for as much as 12 weeks after publicity, Leeies mentioned.
CBRC’s latest suggestions to Health Canada embrace revising present eligibility for organ and tissue donation to be behaviour-based and never identity-based, and mandate that Nucleic Acid Testing be used for any donors who’re thought-about to be an “increased infectious risk” primarily based on “updated, evidence-informed, risk-based criteria.”
Health Canada modified blood donation eligibility standards for males who’ve intercourse with males final yr, prompting Canadian Blood Services to replace its screening inquiries to deal with higher-risk sexual behaviour for everybody, no matter sexual orientation.
Leeies mentioned it’s time the organ and tissue transplant system can also be revised so potential donors will not be unnecessarily restricted primarily based on their sexual orientation.
A 2019 federal Standing Committee on Health, fabricated from up members of Parliament issued a report calling for an finish to organ and tissue donor insurance policies it mentioned discriminate in opposition to LGBTQ+ individuals due to inequities that group experiences.
One of its 23 suggestions referred to as on Canada to finish discriminatory practices associated to organ and tissue donation for males who’ve intercourse with males and to undertake donor screening insurance policies which might be primarily based on proof and behavior.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed April 28, 2023.
