A controversial plan is coming under fire:
Prison inmates in South Carolina could get up to six months shaved off their sentences if they donated a kidney or their bone marrow, under a proposed bill before the state Senate.“We have a lot of people dying as they wait for organs, so I thought about the prison population,” said state Sen. Ralph Anderson, the bill’s main sponsor. “I believe we have to do something to motivate them. If they get some good time off, if they get out early, that’s motivation.”
(via a reader tip)
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{ 6 comments }
Sorry, I don’t think I would want a kidney – or a liver or any other organ – from a prison inmate.
Generally speaking, what is the health status of the prison population? By the time you deselect those who are positive for hepatitis, have potential exposure to HIV or TB and have any kind of history of IV drug use, I can’t imagine their organs would be in the peak of health.
Another dumb idea from the talking heads.
from a utility standpoint, this obv. won’t do anything to alleviate the donor burden for reasons Anon makes clear. But I think there are important matters of principle at stake here.
Currently, the ethical arguments against allowing organ donation from inmates (in exchange for time off or not) rest on identifying the prison bound population as vulnerable to coercion (the idea being that prisoners cannot give meaningful informed consent to such procedures).
Frankly, this argument has never made sense to me. Unless every positive incentive is coercive, how is allowing inmates to enter into mutually beneficial behavior coercive? If sentences were raised on criminals who did not donate kidneys that would be one thing, but this isn’t that.
If I beat the snot out of Kevin and steal his car, I go to jail for X years. If I behave in jail, I may leave in X-n years. Why isn’t donating a kidney the same? I don’t have to be a model inmate if I don’t want to … I can just serve X years and not get time off. I can not give up a kidney in exactly the same way.
If anything, not allowing prison donations on principle is a further restriction on liberty, a further punishment for a crime outside the penalty prescribed by law.
It is as if the legislature in South Carolina saw The Matrix and thought it was a roadmap to good governance. Why couldn’t they stick to easier fare like Larry The Cable Guy?
Can someone please correct me if I’m wrong… but I thought that the “default” donor status for Europeans was “donor.” While in America it’s presumed that you don’t want to be a donor (unless otherwise stated or appealed). So in cases of accidental death, Europeans donate their organs automatically (unless they have documented that they decline to be donors). Call me crazy, but isn’t this a better system?
Anonymous Blogger number one brings up some valid issues that the general public would be concerned with. That said, you don’t sound like someone who is waiting for a transplant. I donated one of my kidneys to my stepfather two and a half years ago so I know what the process looks like from both sides. No surgical teem would take on any risk of transplanting contaminated organs or blood. The testing is extremely extensive and would probably require the donor be put into solitary confinement or into the medical wing of a prison. Ethically speaking you are not allowed to accept money for organ donations so I can see how a reduced prison sentence could be argued as a form of payment. I would like to see a prison program that offers inmates information about live organ donation. I believe that prisoners should come to the decision to donate on their own after deep consideration. I feel that giving life through organ donation defiantly carries a redeeming quality. Giving from your heart without expecting anything in return is a quality that parole boards should encourage and take into consideration when making decisions about someone’s life. I think our prisons mostly perpetuate the darkness in our society and offer prisoners little to no effective rehabilitation or reintegration programs. My ideas here are a work in progress so I welcome your criticisms and comments. I encourage you on both sides of the prison walls to look into your heart when someone you know is dying from organ failure and see what comes up. Organ donation is not for everyone, but if it’s right for you, you probably won’t have to think twice about it.
Im a ex con who that got a 7.5 year sentence and woud have done 6 years 7 months with good time release. 6 months off of the sentence would have been a great incentive to donate organs or bone marrow. if you think of everyone who has been to jail for any offence, even prison, most have been released including myself, so we are as safe as the outside population for this donating. besides , a strong screening is done.
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