About Graeme Wood

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01/28/08

• 1 vote

  Health

  response to  Graeme Wood's post Let’s Harvest the Organs of Death-Row Inmates

  Exactly my point

  I agree with thecoup: whether we permit inmates to donate their organs is much less important than whether we kill people in the first place. What I hope this article conveys is the astonishing mismatch between our scrupulous consideration of the first question, and our shamefully unthoughtful discussion of the second.

  On an unrelated note, many have brought up to me an important point about prisoner organ donation, which for reasons of space did not fit in the article above. Inmates live in close quarters, and they share needles. They tend to be an unhealthy population, rife with hepatitis and other bugs that would disqualify them from donating their organs. Two points:

  (1) Organ donors are a more exclusive club than most people realize. Unless you happen to die with a massive head injury, and are otherwise in excellent shape, your organs might be no good. (More organ donors are needed: sSign up to be an organ donor today.)

  (2) We should worry not only about the horrible deaths of prisoners, but about their horrible lives as well.

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  Commented on February 27, 2008 by - Graeme Wood

• Health

  3 votes

  

  Let’s Harvest the Organs of Death-Row Inmates

  "Someone died waiting for that killer's heart. The liver, split two ways, could have saved two babies." — read more

  Contributors: Graeme Wood

  009: All You Can Eat - Feb 11 2008

  Comments (9)