# Killer's Quest: Organ Donation After Execution



## TiredX2 (Jan 7, 2002)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42667886/ns/health-health_care/?GT1=43001

Quote:


> His request to drop his appeals in exchange for being allowed to donate organs has been flatly denied by state corrections officials, who refuse to negotiate with a killer. It's been denounced in principle as "morally reprehensible" by the nation's organ donation officials and medical ethicists.
> 
> "I don't think we want to be the kind of society that takes organs from prisoners," said Dr. Paul R. Helft, director of the Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics and Indiana University. "To do so would be to use unfree prisoners as a means to an end."


It maddens me that somehow executing someone and then not allowing any good to come out of it is seen as the moral highroad!


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## philomom (Sep 12, 2004)

Sorry, I agree with them. This man has had a change of heart and suddenly wants to be seen a s a good guy even though he murdered his wife and children. No way would I let him have the satisfaction.


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## MusicianDad (Jun 24, 2008)

Ok, really? There are enough viable organs out there that the organ donation committee can just refuse what could be perfectly good organs just because they don't like the guy?

I doubt anyone outside of the prison system and the organ donation organization would have even heard the news if they had just accepted the donation and been done with it.


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## Monarchgrrl (Aug 16, 2007)

I agree with MD. I don't care how he wants to be seen. His organs could save lives. Let's use 'em.


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## TiredX2 (Jan 7, 2002)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *philomom*
> 
> Sorry, I agree with them. This man has had a change of heart and suddenly wants to be seen a s a good guy even though he murdered his wife and children. No way would I let him have the satisfaction.


Would you feel that way if you were one of the eight people who's lives could be saved? I don't think anyone is going to see him as a "good guy" but at least some good could come from his death. It's (sickly) laughable to say that there could be coercion for him to donate his organs when he is going to be killed.


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## BeeandOwlsMum (Jul 11, 2002)

I am shocked. I think that there can't possibly be enough donors out there that we can look at someone and say, no, you don't get to. Isn't the point of prison and our justice system to rehabilitate, to educate and cause people to have a change of heart? (Whether or not that actually happens is a whole other post) And yet, here this person is saying he has and wants to help and the prevailing thought is to continue to punish him? He's already going to die, it isn't like he's going to "learn" or "repent' post execution, but his organs may help someone else live. I find not allowing him to donate organs to be shortsighted and frankly ridiculous.


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## Smokering (Sep 5, 2007)

I'm not sure how much "satisfaction" he'll get once he's dead... I can see worrying about a slippery slope of people pushing executions in order to harvest organs, but this guy's execution sounds like a pretty sure thing, so! I wonder if they'd inform the "donees", though? I can imagine some people might be a bit skeevy about getting the heart of a murderer. Wouldn't really bother me, but I bet it'd bother some people.


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## Super~Single~Mama (Sep 23, 2008)

I would think it would have more to do with not knowing what the lethal injection cocktail would do to the organs, and whether or not the organs would still be viable after that.

Personally, I am opposed to the death penalty altogether, but I certainly wouldn't want the organs of a person who had been murdered by the government, b/c I don't believe there has been any research done on what the injection cocktail does to organs. It causes the heart to stop, and is a very toxic combination of drugs that is incompatible with life - I'm not sure those organs would be usable.


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## TCMoulton (Oct 30, 2003)

According to my husband (a funeral Director who deals with organ donation on a daily basis) most organs need to be removed from the body before death for them to be viable (with the exception of bones and eyes I believe) so I would guess that you might have a hard time finding a doctor who would remove organs from a healthy, living person effectively killing them on the operating table. Also if it is death by chemical injection that may also pose a problem for donation.


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## Mommy2Austin (Oct 10, 2006)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Super~Single~Mama*
> 
> I would think it would have more to do with not knowing what the lethal injection cocktail would do to the organs, and whether or not the organs would still be viable after that.


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## MusicianDad (Jun 24, 2008)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *TCMoulton*
> 
> According to my husband (a funeral Director who deals with organ donation on a daily basis) most organs need to be removed from the body before death for them to be viable (with the exception of bones and eyes I believe) so I would guess that you might have a hard time finding a doctor who would remove organs from a healthy, living person effectively killing them on the operating table. Also if it is death by chemical injection that may also pose a problem for donation.


Um, before death? I don't think so, you can't remove organs from someone who is not at the very some kind of dead, unless it's something like a kidney. They prefer brain dead, but they do take organs from someone who went into cardiac arrest and wasn't able to be resuscitated. As for the injection... There are other ways to kill people without pumping them full of stuff... Hell just pump him full of air.


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## philomom (Sep 12, 2004)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *TCMoulton*
> 
> According to my husband (a funeral Director who deals with organ donation on a daily basis) most organs need to be removed from the body before death for them to be viable (with the exception of bones and eyes I believe) so I would guess that you might have a hard time finding a doctor who would remove organs from a healthy, living person effectively killing them on the operating table. Also if it is death by chemical injection that may also pose a problem for donation.


Yes, that's what I've always heard from nurse friends of mine. .....the brain dead person is taken to the operating room and "parted out". They die on the table. No way to do this in a prison even if the method of execution was amicable to harvesting of parts.

And no.. I'm not an organ donor. I believe that my body should remain intact in death until my cremation. I've always had strong feelings this way. It feels like defilement to me even though it may save lives.


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## TCMoulton (Oct 30, 2003)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *MusicianDad*
> 
> Um, before death? I don't think so, you can't remove organs from someone who is not at the very some kind of dead, unless it's something like a kidney. They prefer brain dead, but they do take organs from someone who went into cardiac arrest and wasn't able to be resuscitated. As for the injection... There are other ways to kill people without pumping them full of stuff... Hell just pump him full of air.


Guess you aren't understanding me - maybe I should have said "brain dead" or something more specific but what I was trying to point out is that you cannot use a heart or liver, a major organ, that is in a dead body - meaning no brain waves, no respiration, someone who is clinically dead. So yes, for organs to be viable for transplantation they cannot be removed from an individual who has already died by execution.


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## Lisa1970 (Jan 18, 2009)

They take them before removing the life support. So, the organs have not been oxygen deprived yet, or blood deprived.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *MusicianDad*
> 
> Um, before death? I don't think so, you can't remove organs from someone who is not at the very some kind of dead, unless it's something like a kidney. They prefer brain dead, but they do take organs from someone who went into cardiac arrest and wasn't able to be resuscitated. As for the injection... There are other ways to kill people without pumping them full of stuff... Hell just pump him full of air.


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## MusicianDad (Jun 24, 2008)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *TCMoulton*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> ...


They take organs from people who are brain dead all the time. Heck, some doctors won't take organs from someone who is not brain dead because someone who is not brain dead is simply lacking and heart beat and respiration and is still cognitively alive.


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## carfreemama (Jun 13, 2007)

This whole debate just upsets me so much. I can't get past the death penalty part and how sick it is to have to think about harvesting organs from executed people. I agree, if this is going to happen it would be good find a way to allow his organs to be used. But oh, how I wish there just was.no.death.penalty.

I will fight against it with everything I have if it gets reintroduced to Canada.


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## MusicianDad (Jun 24, 2008)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *carfreemama*
> 
> This whole debate just upsets me so much. I can't get past the death penalty part and how sick it is to have to think about harvesting organs from executed people. I agree, if this is going to happen it would be good find a way to allow his organs to be used. But oh, how I wish there just was.no.death.penalty.
> 
> I will fight against it with everything I have if it gets reintroduced to Canada.


From what I can see, the only way it would get reintroduced in Canada is the the CHP somehow manage to gain control of the government. They are the only party I can find so far that is pro-death penalty.


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## Irishmommy (Nov 19, 2001)

Jodi Picoult wrote a book on this topic four years ago (Change of Heart). I wonder if the guy in the OP read it.


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