(The Badger Herald) - by Jennifer Fenton - A bill passed in the Assembly Wednesday that would allow 16-year-olds to donate blood, provided they have the consent of a guardian.Current Wisconsin law allows anyone who is 17 or older and meets the physical requirements to donate blood.State Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, was a co-sponsor of the legislation in the Senate.“The bill came at the request of the Red Cross,” Risser said.
Rep. J.A. Hines, R-Oxford, chair of the Committee on Public Health, explained the motivation behind that request.
“The reason they asked me to do this was because they were finding that a lot of the blood facilities are at schools and that a lot of 16-year-olds wanted to give blood but could not because the law is 17,” Hines said.
While there is not currently a shortage in blood donations in Wisconsin, there is a national shortage and seasonal shortages locally.
“The hope is that 16-year-olds being able to donate will have a positive impact on the shortage,” said Rep. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, a co-sponsor of the legislation.
The motivation for the bill spurs from the idea that those who donate at an early age are more likely to continue donating blood throughout their lifetimes, Hines said.
“The national organization for blood donation feels that 16 is a perfectly safe age for folks to get involved in this,” Ballweg said.
High school and college students currently make up 20 percent of all blood donations, according to Sarah Stevermer, a communications specialist at the American Red Cross.
“We are hoping that by dropping the age to 16 it will allow students to become lifetime blood donators,” Stevermer said.
Hines added the only bump in the road the legislation faced had been a wording issue, and aside from that, it faces no opposition.
The Assembly bill and its Senate version passed out of committee unanimously, making sponsors optimistic that it would become legislation soon.
The American Red Cross estimates that every two seconds someone in the