Massachusetts Lawmakers Propose Reducing Sentences for Inmates Who Provide Bone Marrow or Organs

The bill (HD.3822), introduced last month by Reps. Carlos González, Judith A. Garcia, Bud L. Williams, and Russell E. Holmes, would

allow eligible incarcerated individuals to gain not less than 60 and not more than 365 day reduction in the length of their committed sentence … on the condition that the incarcerated individual has donated bone marrow or organ(s).

I actually support payment for organs, with proper safeguards (see my Medical Self-Defense article), but conditioning a reduction in a prison sentence on providing organs strikes me as going too far. (One might distinguish provision of organs from provision of bone marrow, since such provision apparently carries very modest risks to the provider, and since bone marrow regenerates quickly, though I'd still oppose even just the bone marrow feature.)

Comments

[Calliope]

An inmate is on a parolable sentence. He comes before the parole board, asking for release, and points out as evidence of his rehabilitation, that he registered as an organ donor and actually donated a kidney. Okay for the parole board to take that into account? Okay if there's a sudden flood of parolable inmates registering as organ donors?

[ducksalad]

Rehabilitation isn't about astonishing feats of generosity or sacrifice. Such acts are not at all incompatible with being violent and transgressive.

Rehabilitation is about understanding that what you did was wrong, and having a credible and sustainable plan to stop doing it. And that's not at all incompatible with a selfish desire to keep all your organs.

[Brett Bellmore]

I could see that slipping into coercion in the form of imposing excessive sentences and reducing them to normal if you donate. We don't want to emulate Canada, either, which is now pushing "MAID", Medical Aid In Dying", and then breaking up the victims for parts. (Canada went dark fast!)

OTOH, it's not like you can up and decide to donate an organ or bone marrow. Blood, sure, it's a major exception. But with a few exceptions that generally have to be posthumous, the most you can decide to do is go on a donor list, and then maybe lightning strikes.

And while I wouldn't rate bone marrow donation as much worse than giving blood, (Yes, I have done it...) donating a kidney is a major sacrifice. Why not reward the inmate who's willing to do it?

[John F. Carr]

Sixty days for a kidney is not a good deal.

42 USC §274e prohibits "valuable consideration" in return for an organ. A court could conclude that freedom is valuable consideration.

[Brett Bellmore]

Yeah, sixty days for a kidney is kind of cheap. For a bone marrow donation, sure: You totally recover from that, and the pain involved is fairly minor and doesn't last long. But giving up forever on one of your kidneys? That's serious.

[Frank Drackman]

how long did you have pain when you donated bone marrow?

[Brett Bellmore]

Um, about a week, I’d say, maybe two. As I recall, it was a while back, and my life was a little fraught at the time.

Mind you, it was for a potential auto-donation, in the event my chemo had gone really badly. Which it didn’t, except compared to not getting chemo, of course. I don’t know if that’s different.

It was about comparable to that time I'd had a knife come back to me on account of the hilt hitting the target just right, and stick in my shin. Achy, but not terrible.

[Nige]

There's no point in complaining that your ideal libertarian dream system of organ-selling for fun and profit is being realised in a way that hideously exploits the poor and vulnerable when you've been told over and over again that this was always how it was going to come about.

[Brett Bellmore]

We can certainly complain that they're starting with the most vulnerable, can't we? Just skipping to the bottom of the slippery slope, without checking out the defensible territory at the top first?

[Jonathan Affleck]

Is there anything specifically unconstitutional about conditioning reduction in sentence on organ donation? Might such conditioning be a form of involuntary servitude that is allowed under the Thirteenth Amendment? How about a commutation to a life sentence for a death row prisoner?

I worked with Martin McMahon on genocide litigation against US Zionists including my depraved hyperwealthy Zionist relatives. See Al-Tamimi v. Adelson, 916 F.3d 1 (D.C. Cir. 2019).

The entire US Zionist movement should be arrested for probable violation of:

• 18 U.S. Code § 1091 - Genocide and
• 18 U.S. Code § 2339A - Providing material support to terrorists.

---
Once the US Zionist movement is neutralized, (a) the Zionist state, which must be abolished according to jus cogens in conjunction with the International Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), Articles II & III, would collapse within 6 months to a year, (b) the Zionist colonial settler genocide-perpetrator population could be removed to detention camps to await trial under the CPPCG, and (c) the State of Palestine could be established with the return of Palestinian refugees and with the reconveyance of stolen properties to their rightful owners.

The United States could lease out convicted Zionist felons to the State of Palestine so that they could work on chain gangs to restore Palestine. My relatives deserve to go to the gallows. As the only remaining member of the family, I would certainly authorize that they be broken up so that their organs could be used for transplants. Donating organs after execution of the death sentence would be the only good thing that they did in life or in death.

[ducksalad]

Judge in 2022: “Mr. Smith, you’ve been convicted of DWI, 2nd offense. That’ll be 60 days.”

Judge in 2024: “Mr. Smith, you’ve been convicted of DWI, 2nd offense. That’ll be 60 days or a kidney.”

Judge in 2026: “Mr. Smith, you’ve been convicted of DWI, 2nd offense. Jail’s full and the transplant list is long. That’ll be a kidney.”

[John F. Carr]

Larry Niven's 1967 short story "The Jigsaw Man" imagined a future where the demand for organs was so great that ordinary traffic offenses were punishable by death by organ donation. Another story looked at the social changes brought on by the ability to grow artificial organs.

[Rossami]

The opening episode of the Canadian TV show Lexx came to my mind.

And like 1984, I always thought Lexx was a cautionary tale, not a playbook. Apparently, I was wrong.

[Moderation4ever]

I also thought of Lexx, when reading this article.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Niven also wrote a whole series of stories centered on Detective Gil Hamilton, who investigates crimes by "organleggers." All great stuff.

[Ridgeway]

Judge in 2028: “Mr. Smith, you’ve been convicted of DWI, 2nd offense. Jail’s full and the transplant list is long. That’ll be a kidney. Also, we are experiencing a budget shortfall, so we will be billing you for the cost of the surgery. Please take the time to complete this brief customer satisfaction survey.”

[Frank Drackman]

Of course this is gonna open up a whole bone marrow of worms because certain um "Categories" of Donors are considered "riskier" than others and their donations get thrown in the suction cannister with the aborted babies, and others aren't allowed to donate at all.

Below is from MD Anderson's "Be the Match" site

If you have been diagnosed with HIV (AIDS) you cannot register to become a potential volunteer donor listed on the Be The Match Registry.
Be The Match® is focused on recruiting people ages 18 to 35 because medical research shows that younger donors are best for patients and provide the greatest chance for transplant success. Because of this, doctors prefer donors in the 18 to 35 age group.
Age guidelines are not meant to discriminate. They are meant to protect the safety of the donor and provide the best possible outcome for the patient. The lower age limit is based on the legal age of consent. A guardian or parent is not able to sign a release or give consent because unrelated bone marrow donation is a voluntary procedure.

Ironic that you have to be 18 to donate Bone Marrow, but not to have your dick cut off,

Frank

[Brett Bellmore]

I have to admit that it had occurred to me that an awfully large percentage of the prison population would not be suitable candidates for organ donation for one reason or another.

Still irks me that I can't even donate blood due to Lymphoma 12 years ago, even though I'd have died the same year if it hadn't been completely cured. Totally irrational!

It was fun watching them turn pale at the donation center when they turned me down, and I'd remarked that the bloodmobile hadn't seen any issues with it the last couple of times I'd donated, though. 🙂

[Frank Drackman]

I donate regularly as I'm AB(Neg) AND regular donation's been shown to decrease the risk of CHF (I'd tell you but then I'd....) something about the heart not having to pump as many cells, eases the strain, sounds like something Trump would have said, but it's true, and I love the cookies and juice (and the post donation head rush after) at the Red Cross

Frank

[Moderation4ever]

This is pretty ghoulish. I might expect it from some other authoritarian country but not the US.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Massachusetts ain't in the US...

[George]

Shades of the Communist Chinese regime, which created an industry over harvesting the organs of prisoners.

[Tallman]

Yea, they really are owning the whole “People’s Republic of Massachusetts” insult here…

[Mr. Bumble]

Time served for heart or lung donation.

[MaverickNH]

Rather than early parole, just think of it as partial parole, with some parts of the imprisoned donator set free earlier than others.

[The Turtle Dove]

Well, if the average kidney is 130 g, and the average prisoner is 90 Kg., that's about 0.14% of the person, and it will be doing 60 years inside of the recipient, which translates to about 0.084 of a year for the whole body, which is about a month, so this is actually, in a completely logical, objective, and market-based sense, a very good deal. Especially if donated in a leap year.

Mr. D.

[TW]

I don’t think there’s much of – or at least not enough of – a difference between “donate a kidney and we’ll let you out of jail two months early” and “if you don’t donate a kidney, we’ll keep you in jail for an additional two months.” Tying the length of a prison sentence to someone’s “decision” to become an organ donor is inherently coercive. This is a slope we shouldn’t go down.

[Joe_dallas]

What percentage of state prisoners will meet the medical health requirements to donate a kidney or blood marrow?

Lots of inmates with history of drug & alcohol use along with other health problems.

[Frank Drackman]

and I hear they have some "Men who have Sex with Men" although the Very Wrong Reverend Jerry would know more about that (You get a pass for that (HT T. Soprano)

[Joe_dallas]

My only point was that the donor needs to have fairly decent health to qualify as an organ donor or bone marrow donor or even blood donor which has minimum level of health standards. a high percentage in the prison population are not going to meet the minimum level health standards - maybe less than a 1/3 or even 1/2.

Kidneys need to have some match with the recipient prior to harvesting. So even if volunteering it may 1-3 years later after volunteering.

Same with bone marrow transplants, there needs to be a match for the recipient.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

That's true. I'm guessing the motivation behind the bill is to increase the pool of potential bone marrow donors so that leukemia patients and others in need have a better chance of a match. I don't really see bone marrow donation being much of a slippery slope to organ harvesting, since as Brett pointed out it isn't much more than blood donation. Having a huge needle stuck into the back of your hip bone sounds a lot worse, but my wife did it for her sister and it wasn't bad, she said.