The Red Cross standard

Should society give moral approval to a lifestyle choice that disqualifies a person from giving blood? | Joel Belz

IT'S A GOOD THING OUR NEIGHBORHOOD WAL-Mart is just 150 yards from my office. In my very informal Belz Blue-Collar Poll on Homosexual Marriage (see last week's issue), I forgot one very important follow-up question, and had to hurry back this morning to get a few more opinions. (This very unscientific approach is why you should attach no statistical significance to my findings.)

To put this account in context, you need to know that a couple of days ago, I had also stopped by for a visit to the local unit of Red Cross, where I go as often as I can to give a pint of blood. It was, in fact, what I confirmed at the Red Cross that sent me back this morning to visit with a few Wal-Mart customers.

It's a good bit more demanding to be a blood donor these days than it used to be. Walk into the lobby, and you're handed "the book," a bulky three-ring binder you're asked to read through to see if you qualify. "The book" gives you half a dozen opportunities to disqualify yourself before anyone sees the first drop of your blood. The technique is to scare you up front rather than to embarrass you later.