URGING THE U.S. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION NOT TO ENACT GUIDELINES THAT RESTRICT HIV-NEGATIVE GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN FROM DONATING SPERM.

WHEREAS, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not currently have guidelines prohibiting men who have sex with men from donating their sperm; and

WHEREAS, The FDA has recently submitted guidelines for sperm donation for the first time to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and

WHEREAS, If enacted, these guidelines would prohibit any man who has had sex with another man in the past five years, which would include many gay and bisexual men, from donating sperm; and

WHEREAS, By excluding a man who has had sex with another man in the past five years from donating sperm, many gay men who always practiced safe sex and are HIV negative would be excluded; and

WHEREAS, A man who has had unsafe sex with a woman would still be able to donate sperm under these new guidelines while a man who has had safe sex with a man would be forbidden from donating regardless of his HIV status; and

WHEREAS, Unlike blood and other human tissue which cannot be frozen, sperm banks can freeze sperm, quarantine it for six months, and then retest the donor before that sperm is released for insemination, thus effectively removing the chance of HIV  infected sperm being used for insemination and making anonymous sperm donation safe; and

WHEREAS, The FDA regulations would also require known directed donors to freeze and quarantine their sperm for six months before it can be used; and

WHEREAS, Only one quarter to one sixth of men have sperm that survives the freezing process well enough to meet the World Health Organization’s minimum standards for fertility; and

WHEREAS, The proposal to require known directed donors to submit to freezing and quarantine would deny gay men the right to seek medical treatment for infertility and severely limit the ability of lesbians and gay men from creating families of their choosing; and

WHEREAS, These guidelines are based on the tissue donation regulations form the Centers for Disease Control’s Guidelines for Preventing Transmission of HIV Through Transplantation of Human Tissue and Organs; and

WHEREAS, These proposed regulations must be approved by Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala before they become effective; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco urges the Food and Drug Administration to create sperm donation guidelines that reflect current scientific and medical knowledge about HIV and use of HIV testing; to reflect equivalent standards of evaluating homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual sex risks with regard to safety of sperm donation; and to allow HIV-negative persons, regardless of sexual orientation, the opportunity to become known or anonymous sperm donors or to store their own sperm without prejudice; and, be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco urges Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala to reject these proposed FDA guidelines and begin a review and revision of the CDC’s Guidelines upon which those proposed regulations are base, sot that they reflect current scientific and medical knowledge about HIV and the use of HIV testing to protect public health; and, be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be forwarded to Dr. Jay Epstein and Dr. Ruth Solomon of the FDA’s Office of Blood Regulation and Review, Secretary Donna Shalala of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and to his Honor, the Mayor, with a request that he transmit copies to the delegation from San Francisco in the United States House of Representatives, with a request they take all action necessary to achieve the objectives of this resolution.