This is an issue that I would very much like to work at, does anyone know of any particular venues for protesting these policies? Maybe directly e-mailing the red cross? The chance of changing these policies seems low and I wouldn’t be able to determine the value; but it seems like it would be a big plus for rationality in society.
The Red Cross doesn’t set that policy, and has actually suggested changing it. They seem to catch a lot of the blame for it, though, which I suppose isn’t surprising considering that they handle pretty much all blood donations in the country.
As Blueberry pointed out below, it’s a governmental policy problem.
Hah! There’s an idea for a major rationalist project: attempting to increase the extent to which governmental regulators of scientific practice are themselves scientific.
This is an issue that I would very much like to work at, does anyone know of any particular venues for protesting these policies? Maybe directly e-mailing the red cross? The chance of changing these policies seems low and I wouldn’t be able to determine the value; but it seems like it would be a big plus for rationality in society.
The US Department of Health and Human Services just declined to change the policy this month.
Voted up for informative links!
The Red Cross doesn’t set that policy, and has actually suggested changing it. They seem to catch a lot of the blame for it, though, which I suppose isn’t surprising considering that they handle pretty much all blood donations in the country.
As Blueberry pointed out below, it’s a governmental policy problem.
Hah! There’s an idea for a major rationalist project: attempting to increase the extent to which governmental regulators of scientific practice are themselves scientific.