Unwanted donations

Washington, D.C.

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed new rules that would bar gay men from being anonymous sperm donors. The FDA said that gay men were statistically more likely than straight men to carry the AIDS virus. Kevin Cathcart, director of the gay-rights group Lambda Legal, said the policy was “based on bigotry,” not “good science.” Cathcart and other activists said that testing the blood of prospective donors, and screening out those who had engaged in risky sexual behavior, would be more effective. But Eleanor Nicoll of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine said that with anonymous donors, “you can’t be too careful.”