Institutionalized Homophobia in U.S. Tissue Donation Policies

• In Event: 322 - Section on Medical Sociology Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 19. Sexual Orientation and Health

Abstract

The use of language in U.S. tissue donation policies is examined in order to identify the processes whereby male same-sex behavior is used to exclude homosexual men from tissue donation. Content analysis and critical discourse analysis is employed to analyze official guidelines for tissue donation as well as transcripts of the scientific meetings that were conducted prior to the finalization of those policies. Official policy guidelines outlining the donation process are designed to convey both scientific validity and medical objectivity; and indeed the language that is used to exclude potential donors is defended by those who developed the current federal policy guidelines (i.e. the Food and Drug Administration) as being medically objective and apolitical. Analyses of these texts allows for the ‘de-naturalization’ of these statements, and to examine the possible ways in which homophobia may be created, maintained and reproduced within American medicine through tissue donation policies. This paper adds to a body of policy-oriented research, which looks at the ways in which health policy plays out within broader social, cultural and political contexts.

Author

• Michael Flatt, Case Western Reserve University