The NY Times debates whether prisoners should be able to donate organs

Organ Donors Behind Bars

DEBATERS

• 

  The Incarcerated Are Too Vulnerable to Consent

  LAWRENCE O. GOSTIN, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
  Despite rules that organ donations should not affect prisoner conditions, inmates will believe otherwise. Free consent is not truly possible under coercive conditions.
• 

  Let Those of Us in Prison Give Life to Others

  SHANNON ROSS, INMATE, STANLEY CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE
  The reasons that people cite for not allowing prisoners to donate organs are careless exaggerations that have become obsolete because of medical advancement.
• 

  We Must Draw the Line on Death-Row Inmates

  AMY L. FRIEDMAN, TRANSPLANT SURGEON
  As surgeons, we must avoid conflicts of interest and consistently say, “No, thank you” to organ donation from a prisoner who has been executed.
• 

  Let Prisoners Donate Their Organs

  SALLY SATEL, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
  If healthy inmates are sincerely motivated to donate, fully educated about the risks and receive no special treatment in return, how are they not acting voluntarily?
• 

  With the Right Safeguards, the Utah Law Is Fine

  RUTH FADEN, JOHNS HOPKINS BERMAN INSTITUTE OF BIOETHICS
  One huge concern: this new law appears to leave open the possibility that death-row inmates could request to be executed by removal of their vital organs.
• 

  It’s Better to Focus on Other Donor Initiatives

  BETH PIRAINO, NATIONAL KIDNEY FOUNDATION
  Numerous concerns are raised when prisoners wish to donate to strangers, including whether they have access to appropriate medical care after the surgery.

INTRODUCTION

Nicole Bengiveno/The New York TimesWould the recipient of this organ care whether it came from a prisoner?

Utah recently became the first state to explicitly permit general prisoners – not death-row inmates – to donate their organs if they die while incarcerated. Should more states have laws like this? Should prisoners be allowed to make live donations to people other than family members? And with nearly 118,000 people in the U.S. waiting for hearts, kidneys, livers and other life-saving transplants, why not include death-row inmates?

READ THE DISCUSSION »