Massachusetts lawmakers proposed a bill which would allow prisoners to donate organs or bone marrow in exchange for a reduced sentence.
The legislation would “establish a Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Program within the Department of Corrections and a Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Committee.” Under this program, incarcerated people can have their sentences reduced from 60 days to a year if they donate bone marrow or organs.
The committee will promote eligibility standards for prisoners as well as determine the amount of donations that can get individuals with reduced sentences. The bill also states that the Department of Corrections will not accept commissions or monetary payments for bone marrow donated by inmates. (Paying for organs ie illegal in the US)
according to on the BBC, federal prisons in the US allow for organ donation as long as the recipient is an immediate family member. But in Massachusetts, as well as in many other state prisons, there are not a direct path for people who are incarcerated to donate organs or bone marrow, even for their relatives.
Rep. Judith Garcgowho is sponsoring the bill, said legislation would “restore bodily autonomy to incarcerated persons by providing [an] opportunity for him to donate organs and bone marrow.
The program will also help to overcome decades lack of organ donation in the US By United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), there are more than 104,457 people in need of a life-saving organ transplant, and 59,027 people are actively on the waiting list. In Massachusetts, nearly 5,000 residents in organ transplant waiting list.
But critics of the bill say that it is unethical and coercive to offer prison sentence breaks in exchange for organ donation.
“Prisoners should be able to donate bone marrow and life-saving organs if they want to, but incentivizing them through good times is coercion,” the Boston abolitionist said. tweeted. “There are people willing to pay for a kidney to get out of prison, but that’s not an option the government should facilitate.”
Some have also pointed out that the bill is exploitative and undermines the hopelessness and vulnerability of incarcerated people.
“What is most troubling about this legislation is that [the] the system is so broken, and the people who are imprisoned are so vulnerable that there are people who will give up for freedom because they have no other choice,” said law reform lawyer Dyjuan Tatro in a tweet.