To mark National Blood Donor Week the Let Us Give campaign has written to all of Australia's health ministers asking them to drop the gay blood ban entirely instead of only allowing plasma donation for gay men.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration recently approved an application from the Red Cross Lifeblood Service to allow men who have sex with men (MSM) to donate plasma, but not whole blood. The proposal now goes to all health ministers, plus the private blood  company CSL Behring, for approval.

Let Us Give spokesperson, Thomas Buxereau said,

"We have written to federal, state and territory health ministers outlining why the plasma-only option is not a solution to either the shortage of whole blood or the discrimination faced by those currently not allowed to donate at all."

"Israel and Canada both trialled the plasma-only option but quickly abandoned the idea and moved on to assessing all donors for their individual risk, a path we endorse for Australia."

"Research from Canada showed gay donors felt the plasma-only option would make them 'second-class donors' by creating a two-tier system. Instead of removing discrimination, plasma-only donation simply served to highlight it. As one participant in the Canadian study explained it would result in an 'us vs. them' system.

"The plasma-only option obviously doesn't address the regular shortages of whole blood, which we believe can be partly alleviated by allowing MSM to donate."