Christian Longo Arguments Against Organ Donation

The use of organs from executed prisoners is censured by the United Network for Organ Sharing, which guides organ donation policies in the United States. The group denounced the practice in 2007 and hasn’t budged on the matter. Living prisoners may be allowed to donate organs, but it’s decided on a case-by-case basis at the state and federal levels, officials say. Typically such donations are limited to immediate family members when there’s a confirmed organ match, with the inmate and recipient’s families agreeing to foot the bill for all medical and security costs.
Although Christian Longo is not the first condemned prisoner to request organ donation after his execution, his case is one of the more publicized. He was able to write an editorial

in the New York Times, something that most people are not able to accomplish. As far as we know, no one approached Longo to see if he would consider donating his organs after the execution; it was Longo who voluntarily thought of this plan and wrote the article in the New York Times after being denied this option. There were at least 14 other instances where death row inmates or their lawyers attempted to seek their respective opportunities to donate their organs but were denied. Clearly, death row inmates are requesting to donate their organs for transplantation, which seems to indicate their willingness to consent to this process.
Facilitating organ donations from willing death row prisoners serves the public good. This proposal would facilitate better screening for infection in donors and better organ matching, and improve the quality of life and length of life of the recipients. More recipients die waiting for organs than currently receive organs in our country.