An 18 year old gay man is filing a complaint against the Ministry of health after being refused to donate blood at the Icelandic blood bank recently. Current rules on blood donation in Iceland do not allow men who have had sex with a person of the same gender to donate blood. The complaint states that the rules in place are discriminating and violation against local law, the constitution and the Europian Convention on Human rights.
According to Blood Bank´s spokesperson these rules are similar to regulations in other countries and when challenged in court it has always been ruled in favor of local health authorities (for example Pink News article). But Ulfur is not the first person to be turned away from the Blood Bank. In 2010 (Grapewine reports) a German national who had been living in Iceland for a year and a half was turned away from the Blood Bank because he did not speak Icelandic, even after offering to come with an interpreter!
It has been argued by man it is time to revisit rules about blood donations in general. It is too soon to tell if regulations will be changed in Iceland following the complaint but it´s certainly a good thing to have an open discussion about rules in place and if they are in discriminating.
