Canada: Blood Service Stymied by Gay Donor's Taunts

Canadian Blood Services (CBS) has been unable to trace a person who claims to have defied the policy that bans blood donations from sexually active gay men. "I had sex with men in the past. I was tested and am clean. I gave blood," said one anonymous e-mail. "I'm still going to give blood," said another.

CBS won a court order forcing Internet provider Canada.com to trace the address clean_blood@canada.com. The company complied but did not have enough information to locate the sender. "We've reached a dead-end," said agency Vice President of Operations Ian Mumford. "The e-mails we received were sent from outside Canada. It was impossible for us to track it. Whether the person was actually a donor, we don't know." The person, identified as "John Doe II," ridicules the agency for excluding gay male donors, who are considered to be at an elevated risk of HIV/AIDS.

Earlier this summer, the agency won a court order compelling Internet provider Rogers Communications to turn over the name of another person who e-mailed a similar admission. The agency then traced all donations made by the Ontario man and his partner and began notifying recipients to offer them HIV tests. A $175,000 lawsuit against the man is still pending to recover the costs of tracing his blood.

In the latest case, CBS accuses John Doe II of negligent misrepresentation for lying on the screening questionnaire that asks potential donors about high-risk activity. Even if John Doe II is telling the truth, the chance of his infecting the blood supply remains very low, Mumford said. Every blood donation is subject to screening for HIV and other infectious diseases, regardless of how the donor answers the questions.

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