Inmates in South Carolina could soon find that a kidney is worth 180 days.
Lawmakers are considering legislation that would let prisoners donate organs or bone marrow in exchange for time off their sentences.
A state Senate panel on Thursday endorsed creating an organ-and-tissue donation program for inmates. But legislators postponed debate on a measure to reduce the sentences of participating prisoners, citing concern that federal law may not allow it.
"I think it's imperative that we go all out and see what we can do," said the bills' chief sponsor, Democratic Sen. Ralph Anderson. "I would like to see us get enough donors that people are no longer dying."
The proposal approved by the Senate Corrections and Penology Subcommittee would set up a volunteer donor program in prisons to teach inmates about the need for donors. But lawmakers want legal advice before acting on a bill that would shave up to 180 days off a prison sentence for inmates who donate.
South Carolina advocates for organ donations said the incentive policy would be the first of its kind in the nation.
Federal law makes it illegal to give organ donors "valuable consideration." Lawmakers want to know whether the term could apply to time off of prison sentences.
"We want to make this work, we really do," said Republican Sen. John Hawkins. "But I want to make sure no one goes to jail for good intentions."
Mary Jo Cagle, chief medical officer of Bon Secours St. Francis Health System in Greenville, urged senators to find an allowable incentive.
"We have a huge need for organs and bone marrow," Cagle said.
But Melissa Blevins, executive director of Donate Life South Carolina, said any incentive would break the law and the principle behind donations.
"It really muddies the water about motive. We want to keep it a clearly altruistic act," she said.
Under the proposals, money for medical procedures and any prison guard overtime would be paid by the organ recipient and charitable groups. The state would also decide which inmates could donate.
Corrections Department Director Jon Ozmint said he believes inmates would donate even without the incentive.
"There are long-term inmates who would give if they knew a child was dying," he said. "They're lifers. They know they're going to die in prison."
More than 95,300 Americans are awaiting an organ transplant, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. About 6,700 die each year.
It might just be me, but I think this is a startling new low for American politicians. I cannot believe that elected legislators in a first-world country are actually entertaining the idea of locking criminals up in a place where they will most definitely be raped by other criminals, and then offering them six months less daily rape
in exchange for their fucking organs. Who the fuck comes up with this shit?
This is a product of a system that considers prisoners to be second-class human beings, whose health can acceptably be ignored by those responsible for supervising them and, apparently, whose organs can acceptably be extorted.
This cannot happen.
Posts
Hey, let's not mince words.
I forget what it was called. Maybe just "Organ Donor" or something.
Anyway. This is pretty disgusting, yeah.
are you fucken serious?
This is almost unusaully stupid.
A young man finds his urge to kill rising after he receives the kidney of a murdering rapist.....
You're right, that is a grotesque phrase. I've made it a little nicer.
Three cheers for bi-partisanship! After these past six years of bitter divisiveness, isn't it great to finally see politicians of all parties come together to havest the organs of non-voters?
Let Donate Life and the state board of health attempt to 'recruit' donors from prisons without using incentives. Then, when a prisoner's parole hearing comes up, one of the factors that can be calculated into whether or not they get to walk is if they donated an organ. There would be no guarantee that donation = early parole, but it should be one of many determining factors.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I dunno, no matter how I look at it, it seems like a disturbing idea. I don't really agree with lessening a criminal's sentence because they gave an organ. Something about it just seems immoral.
I'm not sure your idea is much better. I mean, I like it in theory, where a prisoner can decide whether or not to altruistically donate his organs, and the parole board can consider such altruism. In practice, I see it becoming a means of bribing the inmates.
I just see no good coming from this. Well, okay I see good for those who get organs, but I see a net bad.
That's it? Man.
And what of the prisoners who we essentialy harvest the organs from?
This is vile.
I'm sorry, were they not given a choice?
Six months is not too long to wait if you don't want to give up an organ.
Would you like to spend six months in prison and tell me if that isn't too long to wait?
Would you like to die because you don't get an organ transplant?
This is fun.
I would rather die than have another person's rights violated.
I think it ought to be rewarded and recognised. If prison Mike decides to spend his sentence growing out his hair to donate to a cancer patient, or to the more extreme undergoes an operation to donate a kidney or bone marrow, a parole board or whatever body might have the power to let him out early should really keep that sacrifice in mind.
However, when you actually structure a system of rewards, the result is the absence of a reward starts to be seen as a punishment - it's no longer voluntary but something you have to do because most rational people will be looking to reduce their sentence.
But 6-months for giving up a kidney that will cripple you for life is kind of stingy (EDIT: which, checking back and seeing some comments, I guess puts donating a kidney back into the realm of rational decision making. 6-months is a nice break, but not necessary. It would, in a way, be worse if they were telling prisoners they could knock 5-years off their sentence).
Yeah, I'd rather die than violate someone's rights by giving them a choice to leave prison.
Where they have no rights.
Wait.
Except creating an organ market, be it for money, suspension of jail time, political privilege, a trip to the moon, or anything else you want to trade, opens the door to horrible, horrible abuses. The kind we don't want to see happen. Sucks for people who need organs to live, but organ trading is just too slippery a slope to get on.
No problem. My initial statement was a little unclear.
I should note that I have received a kidney transplant in the past (goin' on 10 years this month!) from a cadaver. I waited five years for my transplant and was six months away from having to start dialysis.
Even with the wait I had, I wouldn't be too pleased if I found out that my kidney came from an offender who traded his organs for a shorter sentence. The fact that he is a criminal doesn't matter to me, but the idea of being coerced (and it is coercion, subtle though it may be) into donating an organ is disgusting.
EDIT: And these guys are serving a prison sentence for a reason - punishment, denouncement, rehabilitation, etc. - take your pick. Allowing them to shorten their sentence in this manner makes sentencing pointless and could lead to judges impoing harsher sentences in order to account for the possibility of organ donation.
A kidney or 6 months of buttrape.... choices choices.
But why stop here. I am sure plenty of people in 3rd world countries would love to get some money, so why not buy their organs. And the can not vote either.... problem solved.
Not as many as people who are not in prison.
"Sorry you have to die dad, but it wouldn't be fair to the Jehovah's Witnesses if you lived."
"Sorry you can't see your family for six more month's Jake, it wouldn't be fair to the Jehovah's Witnesses."
Hahahaha. No.
That's like saying it's unfair to Jews and Muslims that the grocery store sells delicious bacon.
But ideally this could be part of a wider scheme of community service prisoners can partake of to reduce their sentence.
Long Arm of Gil Hamilton. (It may be a series.)
The perspective of the book would be that this creates an incentive for longer sentences and criminalization of more acts outside of any claims of reformation or separation from society. I agree with it.