Criminal Organs Not Wanted

There’s an inmate on Oregon’s death row who wants to donate his organs to others in need of them after he’s executed, but corrections officials are blocking his attempt to do so.

Christian Longo, 37, told msnbc.com that he wants to donate his organs in an effort to at least partially redeem himself for the killing of his wife and three small children in 2001. It was a heinous crime for the then-27-year-old man to commit, who afterward fled to Mexico where he enjoyed a vacation of swimming and snorkeling before he was nabbed.

Longo says he’s come to terms with his impending execution and feels he deserves it. But he’d like to make some amends to society after his death through the gift of his organs.

“Why go out and waste your organs when you have the potential to save six to 12 lives,” Longo asked a reporter. Longo even offered to drop his execution appeals in exchange for being allowed to donate his eyes, heart, kidneys and other high-demand organs, but prison officials aren’t interested.

Some medical ethicists also oppose the idea of accepting organ donations from death row inmates. “I don’t think we want to be the kind of society that takes organs from prisoners,´ said Dr. Paul Helft, director of the Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics, in the msnbc.com story. “To do so would be to use … prisoners as a means to an end.”

I wonder if the good doctor ever had a friend or relative whose life depended on getting a heart or kidney transplant and didn’t get one in time.

I’m doubting it.

The msnbc.com report also noted the irony in a survey of organ transplant centers across the nation in which it was found that – while taking organs from executed criminals is prohibited — they can accept them from prisoners who die of other causes while in custody.

OK – can someone please explain to me the difference between accepting organs from a prisoner who dies while in custody but NOT accepting organs from a death row inmate upon his execution?

Naturally, those involved in securing organs for transplant say they don’t care where the organs come from. “If someone is sick enough, long enough and wants to live, they’ll gladly take an organ from someone who is incarcerated,´ said Joanne Kelley, president of a support group for heart transplant patients, in the story.

Longo said he believes he could save up to eight lives through his donated organs. “To be able to save so many lives, that means a lot to me…” Longo was quoted as saying.

The msnbc.com report also noted there are more than 110,000 desperate people on waiting lists for some type of transplant, with people on those lists slipping away every day for lack of a needed organ.

Look, many of the people on death row across America committed horrible acts and should at least be in prison for life without parole. But to deny their offers to donate healthy organs to save those in life-threatening need is crazy.

To be so vindictive as to go on punishing criminals even after they’re dead seems to be taking the whole idea of punishment just a little too far.

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