Prisoners Are Not Crops Ripe for the Harvest
Yes, we have a shortage of transplantable organs. But that does not in the least excuse this legislation in South Carolina to give reduced sentences to prisoners in return for agreeing to be an organ or bone marrow donor. No, I am not joking.
There is a terrible history in this country of using prisoners in unethical human medical experimentation. This proposal is right out of that playbook. I don't care if they are murderers, rapists, or former executives of Enron, prisoners have intrinsic value as human beings--which if that concept is to mean anything, has to prevent them from being reduced to the moral equivalent of a string bean crop. And don't talk to me about "choice." The potential for coercion in prison self evident. (The story is unclear whether the organ donations could be live or would be restricted to cadavers. If "live," it is an absolute outrage.)
China may treat prisoners as sources of organs. We should never get into that gutter. This is not to say that a prisoner should never be able to be an organ donor, but the donation would have to be freely given and without a hint of coercion or "time off for good donations."
Labels: Exploiting Prisoners for Organs
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 6:47 PM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
Yikes !
That is really scary. No good can come from this. I agree encourage the prisoners to volunteer for bone marrow donations and what not, but to reward the behavior is asking for trouble.
If people were essentially good in nature this wouldn't be a problem, sadly they aren't. They are fallen.
Although you said it was unspecified, given the examples are bone marrow and kidneys, I'd be surprised if they aren't talking about live prisoners.
BTW, how would this be different to paying a large fine to offset part of your sentence ?
Good analogy, Jason. The only difference is it would be a barter deal.
Wesley,
I hope this isn't too off topic, but it's the first thing that came to mind.
What about prisoners getting reduced sentences for attending alcoholic's annonymous, or another religious group? in effect, converting to a religion?
Some people find that coercive, I particularly don't, but I guess I believe the choice thing isn't nominal. A naive perspective perhaps.
The same would go for this bone marrow transplant.
Given that one of the rationales for the penal system is compensating society (i.e., paying their debt), and society needs bone marrow, so maybe this a new approach to an old problem.
Besides, may be this is naive, may be not, but I think it's good to encourage prisoners to be altruistic.
"You can't encourage altruism by offering incentives -- that's more like bribery. Or coercion."
So, I suppose we should get rid of tax deductions for charitable donations?
You might think it's coercive or bribery, but rewarding altruism is a recognized principle elsewhere, at least in tax law.
Clarification - I don't oppose the bone marrow donation aspect of this law. As for organ donation, yes, I oppose that since it's not renewable.
The reduced sentence thing is totally, entirely inappropriate. It should not happen. What strikes me is the way all these lawmakers are just talking basically about whether they'll be allowed to do it under federal law. Not one of them seems to think there's the slightest ethical problem. People are amazing.
You might think it's coercive or bribery, but rewarding altruism is a recognized principle elsewhere, at least in tax law.
It's not altruism if you do it for the reward.
Tricky one -
A person who volunteers to donate bone marrow happens to be in prison. He's a match to his cousin's daugther, and the girl needs the donation. The guy has done well in prison, he's getting his act together and working toward his parole. He isn't quite there yet. Now he's got a chance to do something good and he requests that he be allowed to donate the bone marrow to the girl.
The guy in this senario isn't a member of the Aryan race or anything, he did something stupid and hurt someone and is paying off his sentence, keeping his nose clean. He's working to better himself.
We give all kinds of incentives to people who really go out of their way to actually improve in jail.
So what do we do in this case?
You have to look at the entire character of the person doing the donating and the whole reason behind it before you say yes or no. This shouldn't be a blanket law - 99.9% of those who would donate would be doing it for the wrong reaons and that's buying organs - the only dif is you're selling time out for good behavior, not money.
But if someone does something like split a liver or give a kidney, because it's the right thing to do, because they aren't expecting to get something back, and because they're trying to get themselves cleaned up - I think that should go on someone's record and should play a part in parole hearings.
The law as it is shouldn't exist. But something should be there for the people geuninely trying to do right.
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