Aa
New Utah law allows organ donations from prisoners
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/09/17674231-new-utah-law-allows-organ-donations-from-prisoners-nearly-250-sign-up?lite
".....Utah’s governor, Gary R. Herbert, signed the first state law on March 28 that explicitly permits general prisoners to sign up for organ donation -- and cracks the door to the controversial option of allowing death-row inmates to donate as well........Whether to accept organs from prisoners has long been a thorny issue. Ethics experts say it pits questions of coercion of a vulnerable population against the desperate need for organs in a country where nearly 118,000 people are waiting for hearts, kidneys, livers and other life-saving transplants, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
In most states, accepting organs from inmates who die while in custody is permitted only rarely and under strictly controlled circumstances. No state allows donation of organs from executed prisoners........Others argue that there are also practical barriers to prison organ donation, such as high rates of disease, difficulty of retrieving organs quickly and execution methods that render organs unusable.
But not everyone believes those barriers should deter donation. Utah state Rep. Steve Eliason, who pushed the law through the legislature, said he was inspired by the 2010 death of Ronnie Lee Gardner, a murderer who wanted to donate his organs but was prohibited from doing so....."
China to phase out prisoner organ donation
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46849651/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/t/china-phase-out-prisoner-organ-donation/
"BEIJING — State media are quoting a top health official as saying China will phase out the practice of taking organs from executed prisoners.
The official Xinhua News Agency quoted Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu as saying Thursday that organ donations from condemned prisoners will be abolished within five years. It said hospitals will rely instead on a national organ donation system that is being set up.
China has a huge population in need of transplants but few donors. Most donations come from condemned prisoners. The government says prisoners volunteer to donate organs but rights groups say there are concerns that inmates are pressured to comply before execution.
China performs more executions annually than any other country.
China refuses to say how many prisoners it puts to death each year. Amnesty International estimates it is in the thousands, far more than the number of executions in all other countries combined. The San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation estimates China executed 5,000 people in 2009.
In 2009, the country's Health Ministry and the Red Cross Society of China this week launched a national organ donation system to reduce the reliance on death row inmates and encourage donations from the public, the China Daily newspaper reported.
At the time, Chinese health officials said about 1.5 million people in China need transplants, but only some 10,000 operations are performed annually.
In 2007, medical officials agreed not to transplant organs from prisoners or others in custody, except into members of their immediate families.
Also, regulations introduced in 2007 bar donations from living people who are not related to or emotionally connected to the transplant patient.
The scarcity of available organs has also led to a black market, with brokers able to arrange transplants within weeks for Chinese and foreigners willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars. The transplants are also hugely profitable for hospitals.
The China Daily said traffickers have been selling organs from people pressured or forced into donating to people unrelated to them since the tighter regulations went into effect in 2007.
Arthur Caplan, professor of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, told msnbc.com that it is "ethically inexcusable that the world tolerate killing to obtain organs for transportation."
"The practice should not stop in five years," he said. "It should stop in five minutes!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jigsaw_Man
".....Utah’s governor, Gary R. Herbert, signed the first state law on March 28 that explicitly permits general prisoners to sign up for organ donation -- and cracks the door to the controversial option of allowing death-row inmates to donate as well........Whether to accept organs from prisoners has long been a thorny issue. Ethics experts say it pits questions of coercion of a vulnerable population against the desperate need for organs in a country where nearly 118,000 people are waiting for hearts, kidneys, livers and other life-saving transplants, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
In most states, accepting organs from inmates who die while in custody is permitted only rarely and under strictly controlled circumstances. No state allows donation of organs from executed prisoners........Others argue that there are also practical barriers to prison organ donation, such as high rates of disease, difficulty of retrieving organs quickly and execution methods that render organs unusable.
But not everyone believes those barriers should deter donation. Utah state Rep. Steve Eliason, who pushed the law through the legislature, said he was inspired by the 2010 death of Ronnie Lee Gardner, a murderer who wanted to donate his organs but was prohibited from doing so....."
China to phase out prisoner organ donation
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46849651/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/t/china-phase-out-prisoner-organ-donation/
"BEIJING — State media are quoting a top health official as saying China will phase out the practice of taking organs from executed prisoners.
The official Xinhua News Agency quoted Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu as saying Thursday that organ donations from condemned prisoners will be abolished within five years. It said hospitals will rely instead on a national organ donation system that is being set up.
China has a huge population in need of transplants but few donors. Most donations come from condemned prisoners. The government says prisoners volunteer to donate organs but rights groups say there are concerns that inmates are pressured to comply before execution.
China performs more executions annually than any other country.
China refuses to say how many prisoners it puts to death each year. Amnesty International estimates it is in the thousands, far more than the number of executions in all other countries combined. The San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation estimates China executed 5,000 people in 2009.
In 2009, the country's Health Ministry and the Red Cross Society of China this week launched a national organ donation system to reduce the reliance on death row inmates and encourage donations from the public, the China Daily newspaper reported.
At the time, Chinese health officials said about 1.5 million people in China need transplants, but only some 10,000 operations are performed annually.
In 2007, medical officials agreed not to transplant organs from prisoners or others in custody, except into members of their immediate families.
Also, regulations introduced in 2007 bar donations from living people who are not related to or emotionally connected to the transplant patient.
The scarcity of available organs has also led to a black market, with brokers able to arrange transplants within weeks for Chinese and foreigners willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars. The transplants are also hugely profitable for hospitals.
The China Daily said traffickers have been selling organs from people pressured or forced into donating to people unrelated to them since the tighter regulations went into effect in 2007.
Arthur Caplan, professor of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, told msnbc.com that it is "ethically inexcusable that the world tolerate killing to obtain organs for transportation."
"The practice should not stop in five years," he said. "It should stop in five minutes!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jigsaw_Man
P.S. I have no problem discussing things that are sensitive to me.
Yes, indeed, and I think you should :)
I understand this is a sensitive topic and I always try to think of you and Mike before I hit the post button. But I think it's an important topic and when I see trends I think are either disturbing or encouraging I'll continue to post.
Where are all of the "if it even saves one life, its worth it" people now?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is not okay to save one life at the expense of another. In other words, el's statement is abominable to my mind.
Back to what Teko, OH and Barb said, it must be consensual.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is not okay to save one life at the expense of another. In other words, el's statement is abominable to my mind.
Back to what Teko, OH and Barb said, it must be consensual.
I realize that this is a sensitive topic for you; you're very lucky that you were able to get your transplant from your daughter.
"Death row inmate's wishes about how their bodies be treated after their death should be followed the same as anyone else's. If a person has committed so grievous a crime as to deserve the death penalty, he is already being punished and there is no just cause to force them to give up the right to determine how their remains be used."
Absolutely agree; everyone has the right to die with some degree of dignity and with expectation that final wishes would be carried out. IMO, body parts should never be harvested without consent.
"Death row inmate's wishes about how their bodies be treated after their death should be followed the same as anyone else's. If a person has committed so grievous a crime as to deserve the death penalty, he is already being punished and there is no just cause to force them to give up the right to determine how their remains be used."
Absolutely agree; everyone has the right to die with some degree of dignity and with expectation that final wishes would be carried out. IMO, body parts should never be harvested without consent.
This is a sensitive topic for me. I had a transplant, a live liver transplant in Taiwan. My daughter accompanied me and she was my living donor.
I would not have had a cadaveric transplant in a foreign country if it were available to me, due to the very scary idea of where these 'parts' may come from.
Death row inmate's wishes about how their bodies be treated after their death should be followed the same as anyone else's. If a person has committed so grievous a crime as to deserve the death penalty, he is already being punished and there is no just cause to force them to give up the right to determine how their remains be used.
I would not have had a cadaveric transplant in a foreign country if it were available to me, due to the very scary idea of where these 'parts' may come from.
Death row inmate's wishes about how their bodies be treated after their death should be followed the same as anyone else's. If a person has committed so grievous a crime as to deserve the death penalty, he is already being punished and there is no just cause to force them to give up the right to determine how their remains be used.
If you HARVEST organs before the prisoner is dead, s/he can't live and you won't need the KCl.......
I don't think organs should be taken from death row inmates at all, unless they are being used to save a family member, etc.
I don't think organs should be taken from death row inmates at all, unless they are being used to save a family member, etc.
I think organs need to be HARVESTED from death-row inmates, and have always thought so.
JUST prior to putting the "lethal" part of the injection into their body, slice em' open, take out what you want, THEN slam the Potassium Chloride.
***
1. Sodium Thiopental: ultra-short action barbiturate, an anaesthetic agent capable of rendering the prisoner unconscious in a few seconds.
2. Pancuronium: non-depolarizing muscle relaxant, causes complete, fast and sustained paralysis of the skeletal striated muscles, including the diaphragm and the rest of the respiratory muscles; this would eventually cause death by asphyxiation.
3. Potassium Chloride: stops the heart, and thus causes death by cardiac arrest."
***
JUST prior to putting the "lethal" part of the injection into their body, slice em' open, take out what you want, THEN slam the Potassium Chloride.
***
1. Sodium Thiopental: ultra-short action barbiturate, an anaesthetic agent capable of rendering the prisoner unconscious in a few seconds.
2. Pancuronium: non-depolarizing muscle relaxant, causes complete, fast and sustained paralysis of the skeletal striated muscles, including the diaphragm and the rest of the respiratory muscles; this would eventually cause death by asphyxiation.
3. Potassium Chloride: stops the heart, and thus causes death by cardiac arrest."
***
Here's one -- "if it saves even on life, it's worth it".........
Where are all of the "if it even saves one life, its worth it" people now?
YOu know what... IF that saves one life, I am for it. Theres a cause to get behind when it comes to saving lives.
There you go - the prisoners HAVE to be willing to donate their organs; not coerced; and everything has to be monitored and done to top standard in order to insure that matches are real, harvested body parts are in the best condition, everything is done to preserve the health of both the donor and recipient.
Anything other than that, would be a "no go" for me. There should be no money passed around for this...... it needs to be "giving for the sake of giving"; nothing more.
Anything other than that, would be a "no go" for me. There should be no money passed around for this...... it needs to be "giving for the sake of giving"; nothing more.
The only problem I would have with this happening is the people are prisoners and I would hate to see someone take advantage and we end up with people ending up dead for body parts as there is a lot of money in it.Sinister I know, but it does seem that greed tends to rule the hen house in this day and age. Other than that fear, I say why not?
Haven't seen you on for a while, so welcome back......
I agree that more should be done to encourage live donors from all walks of life.
I'd never thought of it before, but apparently, prisoners have not been allowed to donate organs before... this law is simply allowing them sign up to be organ donors.
I agree that more should be done to encourage live donors from all walks of life.
I'd never thought of it before, but apparently, prisoners have not been allowed to donate organs before... this law is simply allowing them sign up to be organ donors.
As a transplant survivor I find this a bit creepy.
Why isn't more being done to encourage
live donors from throughout society ??
Why the focus on prisoners?
I don't think prisoners should be banned from being donors but I find something disturbing about this law.
Why isn't more being done to encourage
live donors from throughout society ??
Why the focus on prisoners?
I don't think prisoners should be banned from being donors but I find something disturbing about this law.
Litigation is a downside to just about everything these days, but as Mike said there are forms and waivers to be signed and certain protocol to be followed.
Things can go wrong in any surgical situation; of course, someone could sue, but I wonder how far would they actually get in a court of law, if everything were documented, proper forms/waivers executed and all procedures were followed to the letter?
Things can go wrong in any surgical situation; of course, someone could sue, but I wonder how far would they actually get in a court of law, if everything were documented, proper forms/waivers executed and all procedures were followed to the letter?
Nope......
There are consent forms and waivers and procedures to take care of that.
I think you're trying a little too hard to find a downside.
I think you're trying a little too hard to find a downside.
Just a scenario that struck me:
Prisoner decides of his/her own free will to donate a kidney. During the procedure, the prisoner dies....
I foresee the prisoners family going after either the jail system (because their loved one was a "ward of the state") while imprisoned. Also potentially going after the doctor who performed the surgery and in a real sick case, going after the person who was to benefit from said surgery.
We live in such a litigious society these days. The potential legal ramifications of this kind of bother me. The above prisoner's family could say that "he was not of right/sound mind" or he was "coerced"..... just bothers me.
Prisoner decides of his/her own free will to donate a kidney. During the procedure, the prisoner dies....
I foresee the prisoners family going after either the jail system (because their loved one was a "ward of the state") while imprisoned. Also potentially going after the doctor who performed the surgery and in a real sick case, going after the person who was to benefit from said surgery.
We live in such a litigious society these days. The potential legal ramifications of this kind of bother me. The above prisoner's family could say that "he was not of right/sound mind" or he was "coerced"..... just bothers me.
"As I see it it should remain a personal decision between the donor and his/her conscience.
Wouldn't want anyone else involved in the decision making is all I meant. You know how our Govt likes to stick its nose into everything. :-) "
Totally with you there....... no one else decides, but the prisoner involved; no coercion, etc. Keep the gov't out of these things.
Wouldn't want anyone else involved in the decision making is all I meant. You know how our Govt likes to stick its nose into everything. :-) "
Totally with you there....... no one else decides, but the prisoner involved; no coercion, etc. Keep the gov't out of these things.
If one gives, in and of itself, is that not paying a debt to society?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, absolutely.
As I see it it should remain a personal decision between the donor and his/her conscience.
Wouldn't want anyone else involved in the decision making is all I meant. You know how our Govt likes to stick its nose into everything. :-)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, absolutely.
As I see it it should remain a personal decision between the donor and his/her conscience.
Wouldn't want anyone else involved in the decision making is all I meant. You know how our Govt likes to stick its nose into everything. :-)
If one gives, in and of itself, is that not paying a debt to society?
And of course, legal issues must always be taken into consideration.
And of course, legal issues must always be taken into consideration.
If that prisoner is healthy (i.e has no diseases, etc) and is willing to donate, is a match and can keep someone else alive, why not?
I agree.
I hear you about paying one's debt to society, but I think the act of giving in and of itself is better kept separate from any sort of debts..you know it gets hairy when it comes to legal issues.
I agree.
I hear you about paying one's debt to society, but I think the act of giving in and of itself is better kept separate from any sort of debts..you know it gets hairy when it comes to legal issues.
Agreed!
You must join this user group in order to participate in this discussion.
You are reading content posted in the Current Events . . . Group
A list of national and international resources and hotlines to help connect you to needed health and medical services.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Condoms are the most effective way to prevent HIV and STDs.
PrEP is used by people with high risk to prevent HIV infection.
