Sophie Soloway ’23
Editor-in-Chief
A newly proposed bill in the Massachusetts House of Representatives would allow in-state incarcerated people to remove between 60 and 365 days from their sentences in exchange for the donation of their organs or marrow, according to Insider. Though the bill — entitled “act to establish the Massachusetts incarcerated individual bone marrow and organ donation program,” according to CBS Boston — has not yet been passed, it has struck controversy among leadership within the state.
Springfield Representative and co-sponsor of the proposed bill, Carlos González, pointed to the health disparities facing Hispanic and Black populations that put them at higher risks of diabetes, heart disease and chronic liver disease, according to Boston.com. The article reported that “Broadening the pool of potential donors, [González] argues, is an effective way to increase the likelihood of those patients receiving critical care.”
Judith García, a co-sponsor of the bill, also stated in a tweet that the bill would provide incarcerated individuals in Massachusetts with restored bodily autonomy. Currently, according to WGBH, prisoners are permitted to donate organs, though the Department of Correction “couldn’t provide details on how prisoners can currently” fulfill this task. Politico reports that the proposed bill may provide an easier pathway for incarcerated people to seek out organ donation.
Some critics have spoken against these arguments, citing concerns that the bill would effectively act to coerce people in prison into organ donation. Though the law explicitly prohibits the incentivization of organ harvesting with the reward of financial gain, according to the WGBH report, some worry that this bill would provide similarly unethical encouragement toward the decision.
“Some critics have spoken against these arguments, citing concerns that the bill would effectively act to coerce people in prison into organ donation.”
As Michael Cox, executive director of abolitionist organization Black and Pink Massachusetts told WGBH, “We were shocked to see particularly the incentivization provision to install a harvest organ harvesting program in the Department of Corrections. …You can’t essentially let people sell their organs for freedom.”
To combat these concerts, according to WGBH, sponsors of the bill have included in their proposal a committee that would involve “DOC leadership, an organ donor specialist and two people from the Massachusetts District Attorney’s Association and a prisoners’ rights group.”