Massachusetts bill HD.3822 sets up a program allowing prisoners to cut down their sentence if they donate organs.
Section 170. (a) The Commissioner of the Department of Corrections shall establish a Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Program within the Department of Correction and a Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Committee. The Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Program shall allow eligible incarcerated individuals to gain not less than 60 and not more than 365 day reduction in the length of their committed sentence in Department of Corrections facilities, or House of Correction facilities if they are serving a Department of Correction sentence in a House of Corrections facility, on the condition that the incarcerated individual has donated bone marrow or organ(s).
State Rep. Carlos González told Boston.com a friend of his on dialysis who needs a transplant inspired him to write the bill:
“He’s a father of three children and is in stage 4 of kidney failure,” González said, adding, “I love my friend and I’m praying through this legislation that we can extend the chances of life for him and any other person in a similar life-or-death situation.”González, a Springfield Democrat, noted that a number of comorbidities put people of color at risk for organ failure, pointing to higher risks of diabetes and heart disease among Hispanic and Black populations, and higher rates of chronic liver disease among Hispanic people. Broadening the pool of potential donors, he argues, is an effective way to increase the likelihood of those patients receiving critical care.
The National Organ Transplant Act doesn’t allow organ exchange for “valuable consideration.”
The bill disgusts a Massachusetts prison abolition organization:
“When I saw the bill, it just smacked as unethical and depraved. And the reason is because it is unethical to sell organs; it is unethical to incentivize the selling of organs for very, very good reasons,” said Michael Cox, executive director of the prison abolition organization Black and Pink Massachusetts, which supports LGBTQ+ and HIV+ people impacted by the criminal legal system.He said the focus on incarcerated individuals was particularly shocking.“They’re a marginalized group in society, highly stigmatized and extremely vulnerable,” Cox said in an interview. “And so to incentivize the selling of your body parts in exchange for the most precious commodity in the world — which is time on this earth, and your freedom — was just so appalling.”
Massachusetts is not the first state to have an organ donation bill.
I found a 1998 Missouri bill letting inmates to avoid the death penalty by donating organs.
A 2007 South Carolina bill took off 180 days of a prison sentence in exchange for organ donations. It caused an uproar over ethics and legality. The state ended up with a bill permitting prisoners to donate organs and tissue without any incentive.
A 2019 Missouri bill gave death row prisoners a chance to donate their organs.
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