# Can an organ donor place restrictions on who receives his organs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 20, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083 "2009-08-20T15:51:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gbro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Gbro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gbro)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/21 "2009-08-21T15:25:59Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > It’s not a yes or no question. I would not give a kidney to Charles Manson unless it was wrapped inside an M-80 and shoved up his ass. Leave me out of the murderers, rapists, and child molesters. I’d rather fertilize a flower. Forgive me please, but I LMAO reading that response. However, there is no way that I could judge who i would give to or not. That is how Christianity is;) ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/22 "2009-08-21T18:05:04Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > And with this, I am convinced that this board has the most humorless people in the universe. I’m definitely not giving my kidney to any space aliens. Do you know how long that list would be? ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/23 "2009-08-21T18:12:04Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I’m definitely not giving my kidney to any space aliens. Do you know how long that list would be? Please don’t compare space aliens to convicted felons. It hurts their feelings. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/24 "2009-08-21T18:57:16Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Please don’t compare space aliens to convicted felons. It hurts their feelings. Whose? ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/25 "2009-08-21T19:35:49Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > I’m an organ donor, but I don’t want my organs to go to a prison inmate. Thinking about it, I’d like to leave some guidelines as to how I’d want my life-preserving organs to be used - preferably to a parent of young children. I’d much rather a 35 year old with 2 toddlers get them than someone without kids, or even someone with teenagers. I damn sure don’t want a prison inmate to get them - frankly I’d rather be buried with my organs rather than a prisoner get them. How do you know that “35 year old with 2 toddlers” isn’t molesting the kids? How do you know the felon was actually guilty? I know! We should subject all potential organ recipients to a battery of psychological tests, offer bounties to anyone who can dig up some dirt on them, and subject them to 24-hour-a-day video surveillance for at least a year before any donation! Then we can determine who is truly most worthy of that organ. > [@bup](#): > > Also ask him if you can set something up where you refuse a prisoner’s donated organ, if you ever need one. Wouldn’t they be excluded from donation because of the risk of infection (e.g., hepatitis)? IIRC when I used to donate blood there was a question about having spent more than like 48 hours in jail, and I’d imagine the standards for entire organs are much more strict. > [@muldoonthief](#): > > Nice equivalence you’re making there. So in your minds, blacks = convicted felons. Got it. _WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH_ ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/26 "2009-08-21T20:02:14Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Whose? Why, the aliens, of course. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/27 "2009-08-21T20:06:16Z")
> [@Rysdad](#): > > ? > > They turn from green to white? I don’t get it. Upon the owner’s 61st birthday. It’s how they know it’s their time to die. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/28 "2009-08-21T20:27:32Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Well, at least by donating to anybody, if that’s your only choice, you move the “deserving” person up one on the Wait List by giving it to the horrible person. > > Now that it’s great debates, I’ll ask straight out - if you’re ever on a waiting list, do you want the right to refuse who you’ll accept an organ from? I already have that right - I can refuse any surgery I wish. Now whether I can find out ahead of time who the donor is, and whether a refusal will affect my place on the list, I have no idea. > [@MeanOldLady](#): > > And with this, I am convinced that this board has the most humorless people in the universe. I was just kidding. Untwist your underwear, please. Sorry. Underwear untwisted. I didn’t actually think you thought blacks=felons, I thought you were accusing me of being unfairly prejudiced against felons. I am prejudiced against felons, but I don’t think it’s unfair. > [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > How do you know that “35 year old with 2 toddlers” isn’t molesting the kids? How do you know the felon was actually guilty? I know! We should subject all potential organ recipients to a battery of psychological tests, offer bounties to anyone who can dig up some dirt on them, and subject them to 24-hour-a-day video surveillance for at least a year before any donation! Then we can determine who is truly most worthy of that organ. I don’t know either of those things. I think the great majority of parents don’t molest their children, and I think the great majority of felons committed the crimes they were convicted of. That’s good enough for me. Again, I’m not in favor of any sort of official worthiness testing by the medical community that handles transplants. But I think extending the current directed donation principle, where you can give the organ to a particular individual, to a general set of guidelines that the donor can set, wouldn’t be a terrible thing. ---
**Author:** ![Morgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Morgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgis)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/29 "2009-08-21T20:51:10Z")
It’s too bad I never popped out a couple of kids, or else I’d be able to get that kidney transplant I need. Oh well, at least my cats will mourn me. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/30 "2009-08-21T21:30:59Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > I don’t know either of those things. I think the great majority of parents don’t molest their children, and I think the great majority of felons committed the crimes they were convicted of. That’s good enough for me. 1.) In another thread, the following was said about the work done by [The Innocence Project](http://www.innocenceproject.org/): > [@Would you have beaten this rap? Or would you have gone to prison?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-have-beaten-this-rap-or-would-you-have-gone-to-prison/506529/16): > > They found that about one third of the prisoners who asked for their help in getting blood evidence retested turned out to be innocent. The other two thirds either supported the conviction, or provided no meaningful evidence. But the real chiller was what he said about all the OTHER criminal convictions, without blood evidence. There is no reason to believe that the rate of false convictions in other crimes is any different from the cases the Project involves itself in. And in fact there is a good possibility that the rate of false convictions is even higher in cases where there was no biologic evidence available. Even if the percentage is off, you can’t argue with the absolute numbers: In the U.S., there have been \*\*241 \*\*post-conviction DNA exonerations, 17 of them for people who served time on death row. ([Cite.](http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/351.php)) 2.) Not everybody who is in prison is a violent offender. Not everybody who was a violent offender continues to be a bad person. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/31 "2009-08-21T22:24:18Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > 1.) In another thread, the following was said about the work done by [The Innocence Project](http://www.innocenceproject.org/): > > Even if the percentage is off, you can’t argue with the absolute numbers: In the U.S., there have been \*\*241 \*\*post-conviction DNA exonerations, 17 of them for people who served time on death row. ([Cite.](http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/351.php)) > > 2.) Not everybody who is in prison is a violent offender. Not everybody who was a violent offender continues to be a bad person. So 1/3 of those **who asked for help** turned out to be innocent. That’s hardly a random sample - presumably at least some of them did it because they knew they were innocent. And while I’ll freely admit that 241 unfairly convicted people is still 241 too many, I still stand by my statement that the great majority of people in prison actually committed the crime they were convicted of. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Awesome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Captain\_Awesome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Awesome)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/32 "2009-08-26T01:22:17Z")
I think I’ll add a clause stating that anyone who adds a clause to their organ donation plan, can’t have one of mine. > [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > I know! We should subject all potential organ recipients to a battery of psychological tests, offer bounties to anyone who can dig up some dirt on them, and subject them to 24-hour-a-day video surveillance for at least a year before any donation! Then we can determine who is truly most worthy of that organ. Have you ever thought of working in TV? ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/33 "2009-08-27T17:27:41Z")
> [@Captain\_Awesome](#): > > Have you ever thought of working in TV? Coming this fall to NBC: _Dateline_’s **To Catch an Organ Donor**! ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083/34 "2009-08-27T17:46:58Z")
> [@Captain\_Awesome](#): > > I think I’ll add a clause stating that anyone who adds a clause to their organ donation plan, can’t have one of mine. Doesn’t that mean you can’t have your own organs, and should be fixin’ to donate them ASAP ? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-organ-donor-place-restrictions-on-who-receives-his-organs/507083.md?page=1)