Donate blood now!

Let’s donate blood?

I am not an expert in this subject, and my point will be very simple. Everyone should donate blood 6 times per year. Every town should have a “state of the art” post for collection in mass.

“Every three seconds someone, somewhere, needs a blood transfusion. Blood is always in demand and that’s why we’ve made it easy to donate. Florida’s Blood Centers has facilities throughout the 21 counties we serve and the Big Red Bus is always nearby at local blood drives. We also want our donors and the community to understand the importance of donating; how the blood donation process works; and how blood is used. You can find it all here.”

When my mother had my brother Mauricio, she went into a troubled cesarean, and hemorrhage occurred. My father donated blood directly to her. It was in 1972, and blood transfusion, in a small hospital in the suburbs of Brazil was nothing other than a transfusion. She later recovered, and my father continued donating blood to the same hospital for a while longer. 

I want to donate blood, for I carry the same O positive type as my father. This is not the universal donor, but it is more common. 1/3 of the population carries this type of blood. I have never donated blood because I am gay, and I always considered myself a high risk.

Recently I read that gay people are being banned of donating blood. “Blood donations are down in the U.S. this summer. Gay men have been banned from donating blood because it has been connected to the spread of AIDS. But policymakers are re-examining that ban. The debate has raged among officials, and created a national conversation, as reflected in  CNN.com comments.

I think this is absurd. Gay people also need blood, and I would care less whether I am receiving it from another gay. As long as the blood center is able to refuse or accept based in “lab tests” and not based on opinions.

The average adult has about five liters of blood inside of their body, coursing through their vessels, delivering essential elements, and removing harmful wastes. Without blood, the human body would stop working. Blood transports oxygen from the lungs to the body’s tissue and carbon dioxide from the body tissue to the lungs. Blood is the fluid of growth, transporting nourishment from digestion and hormones from glands throughout the body. Blood is the fluid of health, transporting disease fighting substances to the tissue and waste to the kidneys.

Another point is the fact that women menstruate and lose blood every month, and that blood is replenished, giving the women renewed amount of iron, and other chemicals. It helps with their health, and the proof is that women live longer.

If we share the idea that everyone should donate blood every 60 days, things will be better. Today people are afraid of the needle, and imagine that donating blood is an act of generosity, while it is an act of self maintaining. Others are simply too ignorant and too wrapped up on themselves to understand how good life will be for both parties involved, and for the nation.

I would like to see a study showing the benefit to the blood donor. I know it has benefit.

I want lawmakers to expose this benefit and encourage the entire population to donate blood.

Gay people can donate blood and have it stored in different places for different purpose.

It is stupidity to great a law banning certain groups of donating fluid of life. This is the ultimatum of all absurdity.

Milton L. Araujo