We aren't allowed to donate blood in Canada, and our organ transplant policies follow the same rules, effective December, 2007:

"We'll be asking about things like travel, history of infectious disease, whether they've [donors] been in jail — that puts you at increased risk," Nickerson (director of Transplant Manitoba) said. "Have they been an IV drug abuser in the past? Have they had tattoos? There's a whole list of questions we go through."

“They are also asked about the donor's sexual orientation. The donor will be excluded if the donor is a man who had sex with another man in the previous five years.

“. . . transplant programs must now by law interview family members of the donor as part of the screening process.”

“Transplant programs have been screening potential donors, but in some cases use organs from people in high-risk groups if they've tested negative for diseases. The new legislation means that practice must stop.”

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/...ransplant.html

On the other hand, we might benefit from someone else's organ in the future.

"ASHLEY HALL: Doctors in Sydney may have stumbled across the holy grail of transplant surgery.

A young liver transplant patient has taken on the immune system of her donor . . . The doctors aren't exactly sure how it happened, but they do see potential benefits for other transplant patients, as well as for sufferers of auto-immune diseases like multiple sclerosis and type-one diabetes . . ."

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2007/s2146056.htm

Cherie