Editing Organ donation (section)

===Prison inmates===
{{see also|Organ donation in the United States prison population}}
In the United States, prisoners are not discriminated against as organ recipients and are equally eligible for organ transplants along with the general population. A 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case<ref>Estelle v Gamble 429 U.S. 97, 97 S. Ct. 285 50l Ed 2d251 [1976]</ref> ruled that withholding health care from prisoners constituted "[[cruel and unusual punishment]]". [[United Network for Organ Sharing]], the organization that coordinates available organs with recipients, does not factor a patient's prison status when determining suitability for a transplant.<ref name=unos>{{cite web|url=http://www.unos.org/news/newsDetail.asp?id=112|title=U.S. Statement On Prison Status and Organ Allocation|publisher=United Network for Organ Sharing|date=June 2, 2002 |access-date=December 20, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060926213230/http://www.unos.org/news/newsDetail.asp?id=112|archive-date=September 26, 2006}}</ref><ref name=Wiegand2002>{{cite news|title=State inmate gets new heart; 'Medically necessary care' is required by law, an official says|author=Wiegand, Steve|newspaper=The Sacramento Bee|date=January 25, 2002}}</ref>
An organ transplant and follow-up care can cost the prison system up to one million dollars.<ref name=Wiegand2002/><ref>{{cite web |last=Ingalls | first=Chris | author-link=Chris Ingalls | date=April 8, 2005 |url=http://www.awcnet.org/awcconf07/handoutspresentations/14PayOffenderMedicalKing5.pdf |title=Prison inmate awaits organ transplant |work=[[KING-TV]] |publisher=Association of Washington Cities |access-date=December 20, 2009 |archive-date=January 6, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106005915/http://www.awcnet.org/awcconf07/handoutspresentations/14PayOffenderMedicalKing5.pdf}}</ref> If a prisoner qualifies, a state may allow compassionate early release to avoid high costs associated with organ transplants.<ref name=Wiegand2002/> However, an organ transplant may save the prison system substantial costs associated with dialysis and other life-extending treatments required by the prisoner with the failing organ. For example, the estimated cost of a kidney transplant is about $111,000.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lesko |first1=Paul |last2=Buckley |first2=Kevin |title=Attack of the Clones… and the Issues of Clones |journal=Science and Technology Law Review |date=November 2, 2019 |volume=3 |doi=10.7916/stlr.v3i0.3623 |doi-broken-date=April 22, 2025 }}</ref> A prisoner's dialysis treatments are estimated to cost a prison $120,000 per year.<ref>{{cite news |title=Killer in Need of a Kidney Starts Ethics Row |first1=Lee |last1=Douglas |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=May 29, 2003 |page=10 }}</ref>

Because donor organs are in short supply, there are more people waiting for a transplant than available organs. When a prisoner receives an organ, there is a high probability that someone else will die waiting for the next available organ. A response to this ethical dilemma states that felons who have a history of violent crime, who have violated others' basic rights, have lost the right to receive an organ transplant, though it is noted that it would be necessary "to reform our justice system to minimize the chance of an innocent person being wrongly convicted of a violent crime and thus being denied an organ transplant".<ref>{{cite web|title=Should Violent Felons Receive Organ Transplants?|last=Perry|first=David L. |url=http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/Perry/transplant.html |publisher=Markkula Center for Applied Ethics |access-date=December 20, 2009}}</ref>

Prisons typically do not allow inmates to donate organs to anyone but immediate family members. There is no law against prisoner organ donation; however, the transplant community has discouraged use of prisoner's organs since the early 1990s due to concern over prisons' high-risk environment for infectious diseases.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Guidelines for preventing transmission of human immunodeficiency virus through transplantation of human tissue and organs. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. |journal=MMWR. Recommendations and Reports |date=May 20, 1994 |volume=43 |issue=RR-8 |pages=1–17 |pmid=8183226 |url=https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/48131 }}</ref> Physicians and ethicists also criticize the idea because a prisoner is not able to consent to the procedure in a free and non-coercive environment,<ref name=amednews2007>{{cite news |last=O'Reilly |first=Kevin B. |url=http://www.amednews.com/article/20070409/profession/304099964/6/ |title=Prisoner organ donation proposal worrisome |work=[[American Medical News]] |date=April 9, 2007 |access-date=March 8, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 30, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930125139/http://www.amednews.com/article/20070409/profession/304099964/6/ }}</ref> especially if given inducements to participate. However, with modern testing advances to more safely rule out infectious disease and by ensuring that there are no incentives offered to participate, some have argued that prisoners can now voluntarily consent to organ donation just as they can now consent to medical procedures in general. With careful safeguards, and with over 2&nbsp;million prisoners in the U.S., they reason that prisoners can provide a solution for reducing organ shortages in the U.S.<ref>http://www.gavelife.org – Organization established to advocate for organ donations from prisoners.{{full citation needed|date=February 2024}}</ref>

While some have argued that prisoner participation would likely be too low to make a difference, one Arizona program started by former [[Maricopa County Sheriff's Office|Maricopa County Sheriff]] [[Joe Arpaio]] encourages inmates to voluntarily sign up to donate their heart and other organs.<ref name=sheriffjoe>{{cite web | url=http://www.sheriffjoe.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4&Itemid=9 | title=Sheriff Teaches Inmates to "Have a Heart" By Volunteering To Give Up Theirs |date=June 13, 2007 | access-date=October 20, 2008 | publisher=Committee to Re-Elect Joe Arpaio 2008 |archive-date=January 14, 2009 | url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114025932/http://www.sheriffjoe.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4&Itemid=9}}</ref> As of 2015, there have been over 16,500 participants.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.mcso.org/Multimedia/PressRelease/Organ%20Donor.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=September 30, 2019 |archive-date=August 26, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826161448/https://www.mcso.org/MultiMedia/PressRelease/Organ%20Donor.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.msco.org |title=Arpaio's "I do" Program (Inmates Willing to Donate Their Organs) has them Joining National Drive |date=April 29, 2015 |type=press release }}</ref> Similar initiatives have been started in other US states. In 2013, Utah became the first state to allow prisoners to sign up for organ donation upon death.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/13/17674231-new-utah-law-allows-organ-donations-from-prisoners-nearly-250-sign-up |title=New Utah law allows organ donations from prisoners; nearly 250 sign up |date=April 13, 2013 |work=NBC News |first=Trent |last=Nelson |access-date=September 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191225102842/http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/13/17674231-new-utah-law-allows-organ-donations-from-prisoners-nearly-250-sign-up |archive-date=December 25, 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref>