Bad Blood

I am O neg, and it is as much needed here as it is in the UK. As I had given blood in the UK it was only natural that I should want to do it here.

But no. I am not allowed.

At first my only information was from the NZ blood website was this:

Can I donate blood if I have lived in the UK?
If you lived in the UK, France or the Republic of Ireland for a total of six months or more between 1980 and 1996 then unfortunately you will be permanently deferred from donating blood in New Zealand.

With utter disbelief at what I was seeing I needed to contact someone to ask: why?

It was explained to me that there could be a slight chance we are infected with CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease).

Yep, BSE, or Mad Cow Disease as we more formally know it.

To be honest I am totally appalled by this and feel like I am some type of walking disease. After a bit of research it seems Canada, USA, France and Australia have the same restrictions, and even in the UK you are exempt from giving blood if you have had a blood transfusion since 1980 based on the above.

Yet still I cannot comprehend that people will die because of this. Yes this is a very real and active disease that has and continues to affect people, but let me ask you this...

If you were dying, and the only choices you had was to die, as there was no blood, or receive blood from a British donor - which would you chose?

Surely people should be at least given the choice, as I know what I would do.

And you know that it raises new issues now that if you are British and you have a child here, that child would not be allowed to accept your blood should they need it.

How on earth can anyone consent to or comprehend what could be the purposeful death of a child all for the sake of a choice of blood?