Lawmaker aims to reduce blood-donation age to 16
Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008
With a parent’s or guardian’s permission, 16-year-olds would be allowed to donate their blood in Arkansas, if the Legislature enacts a proposal that Rep. Johnny Key on Monday told two legislative committees he plans to introduce in the 2009 legislative session.
Arkansas Code Annotated 20-27-301 allows 17-year-olds to be donors to nonprofit blood banks or licensed hospitals.
The Mountain Home Republican said his proposal is aimed at expanding the blood-donor pool. It has been reduced the past few years because, among other things, many National Guard members who were donors are overseas and many formerly consistent donors no longer can donate for reasons that arose as they aged.
Officials for the American Red Cross and Community Blood Center of the Ozarks in Springfield, Mo., said the proposal could increase the number of donors in Arkansas about 2. 5 percent or several thousand a year.
Twenty-nine states have laws or pending legislation to allow 16-year-olds to donate with a parent’s permission, according to David Montgomery of the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks.
Missouri enacted such a law in 2006, he said.
“I would rather take blood from a 16-year-old than a 60-year-old. He hasn’t been exposed to as much stuff,” Rep. Billy Gaskill, D-Paragould, said at the committees’ meeting.
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