Transforming Scheduled Death Into Renewed Life
One of the harsh realities of living in an otherwise-free society is the fact that the United States incarcerates far more of its citizens than other leading industrialized nations, and it one of the few countries in the world that retains the death penalty on its books. When capital offenders are executed, there exists the opportunity to turn this scheduled death into renewed through organ donations. At present, while an individual has the right to say whether their organs should be donated, death-row inmates are considered wards of the state and it is the position of this study that the state should have the corresponding right to harvest their organs as a means of execution in order to save and improve the quality of the lives of others. To determine whether the potential exists for such an approach, this study examines the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature concerning organ donations in general and what steps would have to be taken to harvest organs from executed capital offenders including the legal and economic implications. An examination of potential exploitations and abuses of such an approach is followed by a discussion of potential offsetting remedies, the changes that would be required for the execution method from current practices, and the ethical implications involved. Finally, a series of recommendations is followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.
Death Row Inmates Should Forfeit Rights to Determine Disposition of their Remains
Death row inmates by definition have been convicted of committing a capital crime and are therefore are subject to the harshest penalties available under the law. According to Black's Law Dictionary, the death penalty is the "supreme penalty enacted as punishment for murder and other capital crimes, the penalty has been held to not be under all circumstances cruel and unusual punishment within prohibitions of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments" (400). Not surprisingly the debate over capital punishment is ready emotionally charged. For instance, according to Bird, "Rhetoric piles high on both sides of the political debate regarding the place capital punishment should or should not have in twenty-first century America" (1329). Moreover, some organizations such as Amnesty International have come down hard in their condemnation of the use of the death penalty:
The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state. This cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment is done in the name of justice. It violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to kill the prisoner. (Abolish the Death Penalty 2)
Notwithstanding these objections to the practice, the fact remains that a majority of the state in the United States retain capital punishment on their books and it is reasonable to suggest that the laws will remain unchanged in most of these states for the foreseeable future. Although death row inmates are subject to the "supreme penalty" for their acts, they do not automatically forfeit the right to the disposition of their body following their execution, a constraint that remains firmly in place despite the growing demand for healthy organs. In fact, the demand for more human organs has increased significantly in recent years as the result improvements in medical procedures and demonstrated survival rates.
Around the world, organ transplants have become an important medical alternative to the problems that are associated with end-stage organ failure; therefore, the obvious medical solution to end-state organ failure is organ transplantation. For instance, according to Jensen, "Over the years, the success rates of...
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