# Condemned felons as organ donors **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 28, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condemned-felons-as-organ-donors/397865 "2007-03-28T17:53:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2007, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condemned-felons-as-organ-donors/397865/21 "2007-03-30T14:33:02Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] Somebody should make a movie out of this idea. I bet there would be some real green in it. [/QUOTE] They did. And there was. Soylent Green. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2007, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condemned-felons-as-organ-donors/397865/22 "2007-03-30T15:03:33Z")
Whoosh. > [@](#): > > _I bet there would be some real **green** in it._ ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condemned-felons-as-organ-donors/397865/23 "2007-03-31T01:31:07Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] Aren’t the Chinese suspected of doing this? [/QUOTE] Suspected nothin’. They admit it. (Officially, it’s with signed consent, and they don’t _sell_ the organs.) Y’know, back to the topic at hand, would you believe I [gave a speech on the subject last year](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9citZWjP4l0)? Blew THAT class out of the water, I can tell ya. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2007, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condemned-felons-as-organ-donors/397865/24 "2007-03-31T17:18:09Z")
First you need to find a humane execution method that is going to give you a brain-dead, beating-heart donor with viable organs… ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condemned-felons-as-organ-donors/397865/25 "2007-04-02T12:36:26Z")
[QUOTE=irishgirl] First you need to find a humane execution method that is going to give you a brain-dead, beating-heart donor with viable organs… [/QUOTE] Make 'em watch TV. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condemned-felons-as-organ-donors/397865/26 "2007-04-02T12:38:39Z")
[QUOTE=Hypno-Toad] Make 'em watch TV. [/QUOTE] But that’s not humane! ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condemned-felons-as-organ-donors/397865/27 "2007-04-02T12:39:09Z")
I don’t see why you couldn’t harvest corneas and skin and tendons and that sort of thing. Or bone marrow (which you wouldn’t even have to be dead for). If you’re going to kill a guy, why would there be any moral grounds to keep you from harvesting organs? ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condemned-felons-as-organ-donors/397865/28 "2007-04-02T15:32:27Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] If you’re going to kill a guy, why would there be any moral grounds to keep you from harvesting organs? [/QUOTE] The argument I hear is that the practice would create an additional, commercial, incentive to condemn criminals to death. This could seriously affect sentencing. A judge who sees no value in a convicted man might send him to the chop block instead of giving him a life sentence since the convicts death could “do some good” for a transplant recipient. I like the idea of putting a criminals’ organs to work after he’s done with them. At least then some benifit to society can be created. BUT… There is so much that could go wrong with the practice that I have some severe reservations about it. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condemned-felons-as-organ-donors/397865/29 "2007-04-02T15:35:06Z")
[QUOTE=Hypno-Toad] The argument I hear is that the practice would create an additional, commercial, incentive to condemn criminals to death. This could seriously affect sentencing. A judge who sees no value in a convicted man might send him to the chop block instead of giving him a life sentence since the convicts death could “do some good” for a transplant recipient. I like the idea of putting a criminals’ organs to work after he’s done with them. At least then some benifit to society can be created. BUT… There is so much that could go wrong with the practice that I have some severe reservations about it. [/QUOTE] I don’t see why they couldn’t do it the way the rest of us do it. Everyone I know has an organ donor sticker on their license. You just let the prison know that you’re a donor and they send your body to the harvestors when you die. No rush to off anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condemned-felons-as-organ-donors/397865/30 "2007-04-02T16:31:14Z")
I think there’s some confusion about a major point of the OP, and that’s probably my fault. The default on this would still be kill 'em and bury 'em. If a condemned inmate made no choice, there would be no harvesting of organs. Inmates would have to volunteer AFTER the appeals process was finished; there would be no societal incentive to condemn more people to death. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condemned-felons-as-organ-donors/397865/31 "2007-04-02T17:29:50Z")
I could see a lot of prisoners refusing to donate as a little “Fuck You” to the State. But still, it might get a few organs into new people if they asked the condemned to donate. They should wait to ask until after sentencing to help maintain the neutrality of the judge on the subject, if that’s possible. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/condemned-felons-as-organ-donors/397865.md?page=1)