Late Death/Cynic drummer Sean Reinert’s organ donor request denied due to sexual orientation

Posted by on February 11, 2020

Last month, we were all shattered to hear about the passing of former Death and Cynic drummer Sean Reinert. While we are still grieving, it appears there’s another saddened struggle. Reinert requested to be an organ donor, and unfortunately, his request has been denied. Apparently, he didn’t reach the government’s policy, mainly for being a “sexually active homosexual male.” FDA regulations deny eligibility to men who had sex with another male within an entire year. Sean’s widower, Tom Snyder, explained the situation via Reinert’s Facebook page. For more information on how to hopefully change these restrictions, go to this location

 

Read Tom’s full statement below:

My husband Sean was an organ donor. He believed that when he passed on if his organs could go to someone in need that it would be a great thing. He was incredibly kind and giving in every way imaginable as many of his closest friends are well aware.

After I got home from the hospital the night Sean passed I received a phone call about 1 in the morning. It was from a person who works with the organ donor program at the hospital where Sean passed. They notified me that Sean was identified as an organ donor in their database and wanted to ask me some questions about him to proceed. I could not deal with the stress of this at the time and asked if I could wait to talk to them the next morning and they said although time was of the essence that would be fine as there’s a 24 hour window to harvest organs.

The next morning when Seans sister Patti arrived from Miami I explained the situation to her and we agreed that if Sean wanted his organs donated that we would honor his wishes. I called the organ donation people back and said I was ready to proceed. The lady on the phone said that was great and began the questionnaire. After the first few standard questions she asked if Sean was a sexually active homosexual male. Without thinking I said “yes” and almost without missing a beat she said “well, unfortunately that means….” and I went numb because I knew what she was about to say. She said a few more words and then I interrupted her, said some words back and hung up the phone.

Sean did not have HIV, or any other STD’s for that matter. But because he was a gay man living in America in 2020 he was not allowed one of his final wishes of donating his organs to help save another persons life. The government would rather let people waiting for a transplant die than give them one of Seans organs. As his husband it makes me sick to my stomach and incredibly angry.

-Tom

EDIT: Quick comment for those of you looking up organ donation websites and thinking something went wrong here. The specific guidelines are for men who have had male to male sexual contact in the last 12 months. It’s regulated by the FDA and those guidelines are still in place. So while websites may say it’s a ‘myth’ that LGBTQ+ people can’t donate, that is not true of sexually active men. – Tom”

 

 

[Via Metal Injection]

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