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Democrats are demanding the Obama administration update its policy to allow gay men to donate blood, tissue and organs. On Monday, a group of lawmakers led by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell asking her to change current policy to allow men who have had sex with other men to donate blood, organs and tissue. The lawmakers said the current ban promotes stereotypes that gay men have HIV and discriminates against them.

The six-pointed star that separates good bigotry from bad By Dennis Powell Bigotry is a bad, very bad, unforgivable thing. Except, of course, when it isn't. It is, for instance, perfectly acceptable to criticize someone for acting like a white man. Not so much to criticize someone for acting like a black man. (Both examples are ridiculous, there being no homogeneity within either group.) Criticizing a man for behaving "like a man" is allowed; criticizing a woman for behaving "like a woman" is not. The moral justification for the distinction is unclear and, I suspect, nonexistent. What brings this to...

In an earlier post, I reported that Time Magazine had recycled a 2009 blood libel from the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, which accused Israel of harvesting and selling 'Palestinians' organs. Having been called on their slander, Time has now corrected the video in question. On Sunday, the magazine deleted the allegations from a two-minute video on its website about the Israel Defense Forces and added a correction, writing at the end, “Correction: The original version of this video cited a contested allegation in a 2009 Swedish newspaper report as fact. The allegation has been removed from the video.” The video,...

A set of proteins found in our intestines can recognize and kill bacteria that have human blood type molecules on their surfaces, scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have discovered. The results were published online Feb. 14 and are scheduled to appear in the journal Nature Medicine. Many immune cells have receptors that respond to molecules on the surfaces of bacteria, but these proteins are different because they recognize structures found on our own cells, says senior author Richard D. Cummings, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry. "It's like having a platoon in an army whose...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First lady Michelle Obama embraced her family’s African roots in a speech on Wednesday, telling a group of young Africans that the “blood of Africa” runs through her veins as she urged changing traditional beliefs on the worth of educating women. Her husband had shied away from discussing his African heritage in his own remarks to the 500 Africans finishing a six-week Washington leadership fellowship on Monday, referencing his Kenyan father only once and in the question-and-answer session. But Michelle Obama said as an African American woman, her discussion with the African youth was “deeply personal.” “The...

The idea that eating cocoa-rich, dark chocolate may offer greater health benefits than milk chocolate is not new. Cocoa is loaded with compounds called polyphenols that have been shown to help our bodies fend off inflammation and maybe even improve our moods. And now a small study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association offers evidence of another possible benefit: improving vascular health by increasing blood flow. Researchers studied patients with peripheral artery disease, or PAD, which affects about 20 percent of adults older than 70 in the U.S. and other Western countries. People who have PAD can...

EUGENE, Ore. - If you refuse to take an alcohol breath test this Fourth of July weekend, be prepared to give blood. Eugene, Springfield and Oregon State police plan a "No Refusal Weekend" over the Independence Day holiday. Police plan to work in coordination with prosecutors and judges to quickly obtain "blood draw warrants" for drivers who refuse blood alcohol content testing.

Are you living a safe and comfortable life? Then maybe you are not doing enough, because carrying your cross should be a difficult thing to do. It was for Him, and he did anyway. Tertullian said that The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Yet today I see the church in America dieing a slow death due to the fact that the Saints in America like their blood too much to offer it as a sacrifice for Christ and His church today. That's because too many Christians in America are so connected to the world...

A suspected witch from Pelandaba caused a stir in Mpopoma suburb, Bulawayo, after she ran out of her “witchcraft powers” and found herself at a stranger’s house. Ellen Khayiya Mpofu, 52, was picked up by police after she invaded Patricia Tshabalala’s house just before 2AM yesterday and claimed that her friends “dumped her”. Dressed in a wrapping scarf with no shoes and holding a plastic bag with pieces of cloth, mysterious objects and some concoctions, Khayiya shocked Mpopoma residents who learnt she found her way into the house through a locked door. Stunned residents thronged the house to catch a...

Fears are growing that the most lethal form of the Ebola virus can mutate into an airborne pathogen, making the spread of the terrifying disease more difficult to check. It was previously thought the untreatable virus, which causes massive internal bleeding and multiple organ failure, could only be transmitted through contact with infected blood. But now Canadian researchers have carried out experiments showing how monkeys can catch the deadly disease from infected pigs without coming into direct contact.k

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Wednesday that al-Qaeda’s network in that country is in “survival mode,” but warned that a full American military drawdown after the end of the year would allow the terrorist group to regenerate there. Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford’s remarks to the Senate Armed Services Committee appeared intended to shape the White House’s deliberation over whether to leave behind a contingent for training and counterterrorism missions beyond 2014 or pull out entirely. The decision has been delayed by the Afghan president’s refusal to sign a security pact with Washington. “A withdrawal, in my mind,...

This is a great story. Oddity Central reports a story about an amazing man. He's not just special because his blood is rare. It's what he's done with it: 74-year-old James Harrison is a superhero in his own right. Granted, he doesn’t wear a cape or spin webs, but he has saved over two million babies’ lives in the past 54 years. And in real life, it doesn’t get cooler than that. Australian-born James has a very special type of blood – the plasma contains an antibody that cures babies of Rhesus disease, a severe form of anemia. He has...

Dinosaur Soft Tissue Preserved by Blood? by Brian Thomas, M.S. * Researchers are now suggesting that iron embedded in blood proteins preserved the still-soft tissues, cells, and molecules discovered inside dinosaurs and other fossils after the creatures were buried in sediments. The ability to justify millions of years is at stake, and this study promises to do just that. What are its merits and demerits? Publishing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Mary Schweitzer led a team that showed how iron atoms from blood adhere to and preserve blood vessels.1 The team placed ostrich bone blood vessels...

A push by activists to ease the 30-year-old blanket ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men faces a key test this week as a federal panel hears results of the latest research. The findings will be released amid growing pressure from politicians and advocates, including college students, to change the policy. Critics say the ban is a hangover from the early, fear-filled days of AIDS, stigmatizing gay men and ignoring advances in treatment and detection in the decades since...

A Tennessee man who cries tears of blood has spent the last seven years searching for answers and help. The first time Michael Spann cried blood he was in his home coming down the stairs and had a sudden flash of pain. “I felt like I got hit in the head with a sledgehammer,” Spann told The Tennessean. “I never felt anything like it.” Spann said blood was coming not just from his eyes, but also his nose and mouth. He was 22-years-old at the time when this started to occur almost everyday. Now, seven years later, he said it’s...

The U.S. gay rights movement has achieved many victories in recent years—on marriage, military service and other fronts. Yet one vestige of an earlier, more wary era remains firmly in place: the 30-year-old nationwide ban on blood donations by gay and bisexual men. Dating from the first years of the AIDS epidemic, the ban is a source of frustration to many gay activists, and also to many leading players in the nation’s health and blood-supply community who have joined in calling for change. In June, the American Medical Association voted to oppose the policy. AMA board member William Kobler called...

Nanoparticles that never have to enter the body can capture harmful components in blood, scientists in Switzerland have shown.Removing unwanted molecules from the blood is the most direct way to cure or prevent many illnesses. An example of this approach is dialysis where small molecules like urea are filtered out to treat patients with renal failure. As this separation method is size-selective, larger noxious molecules or cells cannot be efficiently eliminated from the blood in this way.Nanoparticles with capturing agents attached to their surface can remove larger molecules from blood. However, the risks of nanoparticles inside the body are not...

Chemical 'fingerprint' in the blood could provide clues to health later in life Metabolites indicate future lung function, bone density, and blood pressure Could pave the way for new treatments for age related conditionsA revolutionary new blood test could tell you how long you will live, and how quickly you will age. Scientists have discovered a chemical ‘fingerprint’ in the blood that may provide clues to an infant's health and rate of ageing near the end of life. The discovery raises the prospect of a simple test at birth that could help doctors stave off the ravages of disease in...

Blood sweat and tears .... Yaritza started shedding bloody tears earlier this month DOCTORS in Chile are baffled by a woman who has started crying tears of BLOOD. Yaritza Oliva was terrified when the strange condition appeared earlier this month. Ever since, with no warning, the 20-year-old bleeds from her eyes several times a day. Yaritza visited her doctor but when no evidence of an infection could be found she was sent home with eye drops to help her cope with the pain, which she says is "indescribable". Haemolacria Rare ... it's possible she has a condition called haemolacria Her...