A new Bill proposes that prisoners in the US state of Massachusetts could get at least two months off their sentences in exchange for donating bone marrow or organs, the idea being to establish an organ and donation programme within the state’s Department of Corrections.
If it passes into law, the Bill will allow prisoners to gain “not less than 60 and not more than a 365-day reduction in the length of their committed sentence”, reports The Guardian.
A committee would also be established comprising five people responsible for overseeing the scheme, and setting eligibility standards for those interested in the programme and “the amount of bone marrow and organ(s) donated to earn one’s sentence to be commuted”.
Currently, the US Federal Bureau of Prisons allows organ donations by inmates only if the recipient is a member of their immediate family, but many state prisons, including those in Massachusetts, have no pathway to organ or bone marrow donation.
No state allows organ donation from executed prisoners, even if they are registered organ donors.
According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), 104 413 people in the US are awaiting organ transplants, 58 970 of whom are on an active waiting list.
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