Legislators in South Carolina are mulling over a creative way of coping with the state’s shortage of organ donors. A panel in its Senate has proposed that prison inmates could trade their organs for time off their sentences. If they donated a kidney, for instance, prisoners would have 180 days shaved off their time in jail.

"We have a lot of people dying as they wait for organs, so I thought about the prison population," said Senator Ralph Anderson, the bill’s main sponsor. "I believe we have to do something to motivate them. If they get some good time off; if they get out early, that’s motivation."

Before the bill goes further, lawmakers are seeking legal advice, because Federal law bans giving organ donors "valuable considerations". They want to confirm that time off from jail will not be deemed a valuable consideration.

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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