I believe the best answer in this situation is the moderate answer. If a death row inmate opts to donate their organs, then their status on death row should not interfere with the timely delivery of their organs. Some people on death row may even see this as a form of repentance, while in other cases it may simply be making "the best of a bad situation".
Permalink | Report

If the prisoner agrees to this then it is a good idea. I would hope that most people would want to be an organ donor so that they could help give life to those left on this earth. It is the last gift that we as humans have left to give. I know that I would be so grateful to a donor if they helped save the life of my loved ones. If it can help improve the quality of life for others then I am all for it!
Permalink | Report

Considering death row inmates die by injection of chemicals in some fashion, I'm not sure those organs could reasonably be cleared to be transplanted into a patient. Also, when you consider the death row inmate population and the likelihood of illicit drug use, I'm not sure most people would WANT an organ from a death row inmate since it's likely to cause problems for the recipient anyway.

I don't think this is much of an issue in this country. Most would say it's unethical, and many doctors would argue that it's reckless.
Permalink | Report

This makes complete sense to me.
Death row inmates should be STRONGLY encouraged to become organ donors if their organs are healthy enough to be considered for donation.
Maybe encouraged through a better selection of foods to eat or other incentive program from the point at which they decide to become organ donors.

I say encouraged because I do not think that the inmate should be required to become an organ donor after all they are his/her organs.

I can see some folks having problems with one of their loved ones getting a heart from a murderer or rapist etc but the possible organ recipient would, not that I could imagine, ever have a problem with where their life saving new organ(s) came from.
Permalink | Report

No, they shouldn't be allowed.

You might call me crazy but I believe that part of who you are remains on your body after you die.

http://www.asiaone.com/Health/News/Story/A1Story20080423-61402.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-558271/Can-really-transplant-human-soul.html
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/426766/one_in_ten_transplant_patients_inherit_personalities_of_their_organ/

Dont know about you, but would you want your daughter or son to get a heart transplant from a known murder?
Permalink | Report

I think that is a brilliant idea except in cases where there are strong religious beliefs to the contrary. It could, in fact, be a way of paying off a criminal's debt to society in non-death-row situations. For example, let's say a criminal is not on death row, they could have the option of signing up as an organ donor to help pay off a particular amount they have been deemed to owe society, a set amount, and once they sign up they don't have the option to revoke that.
Permalink | Report

Hmm... it's a good idea, because there's plenty of need for the organs, but it's politically dangerous, because if organ shortages get too extreme, judges might be pressured into passing death sentances beyond cases where it makes fundamental sense to permanently erase a character from the picture.

One option might be to leave it up to the convict, with some little incentive like: Your options are electric chair, or by lethal injection if we get your organs.

A neat little sociological side-benefit about doing it that way is that death by electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment and shouldn't be practiced anywhere, so it offers an opportunity for people of conscience living in states using electric chairs to molify themselves a bit knowing that the convict has the option of experiencing a merciful death if he's willing to let his organs save another person's life.

States already using death by lethal injection are already enlightened, so they could offer a twist on death-by-electricity, and say to the convict that his options are death by standard lethal injection into a dark void of meaningless nothingness, or death by electrodes planted in various circuits of the brain wherein the current starts small and is cranked up until the con goes out on the wildest trip of his extremely finite existence if he donates his organs.

Everyone knows that China does organ harvesting from convicts all the time, just like everyone *should* know that China keeps her heathcare system on a user-pay basis and will not allow universal health *insurance* because she harvests organs from people dying of natural causes too, and if someone can't afford a doctor, then it means they're poor, so if they die nobody will miss them, least of all the economy, but with organ harvesting, some value was wraught from the piesant.
Permalink | Report