Democrats in Massachusetts have proposed a new law that baits convicted criminals into getting released early in exchange for donating a body organ. The proposed law has raised ethical questions.
Filed last month, Bill HD.3822 is sponsored by two Democrat state representatives – Carlos González and Judith A. Garcia – and is called “An Act to establish the Massachusetts incarcerated individual bone marrow and organ donation program.”
Under this bill, the Department of Corrections will establish a Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Program, which will oversee the reduction in prison sentences of incarcerated individuals on one condition: the incarcerated individual has donated bone marrow or organ(s).
The proposed law will allow reducing jail time of convicts by as less as 60 days (2 months) and up to a maximum reduction of a year (365 days) once they donate their body part(s). A special parole hearing will decide on reducing the convict’s sentence in exchange for his/her “good behavior.”
Representative Garcia, one of the bill’s sponsors, tied the proposed law to the alleged racial injustice. In her statement to the Associated Press, she said it would “reduce health inequities from the vicious cycle of unjust incarceration and over-policing of Black and Brown communities.”
But many critics see Bill HD.3822 as unethical. Kevin Ring, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, even called it “something from a dystopian novel.” George Annas of Boston University’s School of Public Health equated the deal of reduced prison sentence for one’s organs to the sale of organs, which is banned by federal law.
Jody Serrano posed the question in Gizmodo whether, in such a deal, one can really call the inmate’s decision a donation:
Although is it a donation if you’re giving something in exchange for something else?
Even the Democratic House Speaker Ronald Mariano commented that the proposed law doesn’t make sense. She was cited telling the Associated Press:
“It’s kind of an extreme way to get your sentence reduced. I don’t know if it makes much sense.”
Comments on Twitter criticized the bill, and some equated it to organ harvesting.
Public speaker and human rights advocate Steven Donziger called the bill “macabre and a sign of our escalating dystopia.”
Newsmax noted that Bill HD.3822 not only faces a steep climb in MA state house but also may clash with federal law that bans acquiring human organs for “valuable consideration.”