Suitability of organs for donation following execution

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/opinion/06longo.html

Big push to allowing it, currently not allowed by the prisons, no law against it.

You might want to look at Change of Heart: A Novel by Jodi Picoult. Same idea.

Hanging or gun shots or decapitation would work, but ingesting chemicals leaves traces and electricutions fries everything. But there's a problem with any of this. Most organs are harvested from living but brain dead individuals or patients that have just died. Decomposition sets in quickly and I think the maximum is something like 30 minutes. Considering it takes ten to fifteen minutes to get out of a death chamber and then you'd have the transport to a hospital before harvesting can happen, I doubt it's practically possible.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

I would suggest gassing them with isoflurane or co2

It would make more sense for an assisted suicide to be facilitated in a hospital where the organs could be safely removed, and in some cases transplanted directly to recipients. There are also drugs currently given to brain dead patients to prepare them for organ donation before the organs are harvested. I think blood thinners is one of them but you'd have to check into that.

Chris P said:

Specifically the gas chamber. I have an idea for a story (it might have been inspired by an existing story, so please post if it sounds familiar) were people are allowed to commit suicide voluntarily via gas chamber so their organs can be donated.

Click to expand...

I'm recalling a 60's era TV episode (or movie?) involving a gas chamber, perhaps The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, but that's a long shot, there could have been several gas chamber scenes and none of them involving that storyline.

Chris P said:

Any knowledge about this, anyone?

Click to expand...

The article The Grift posted has several interesting points, but not the one (basically a moral argument against it) I vaguely remember from long ago. Government would have conflicting interests - many people are in need of organs, but to allow prisoners to donate would put the government under pressure to provide more organs, to the point of executing prisoners before all their rights are exhausted, and the prison becoming an organ farm. That's a very "slippery slope" argument and the extreme is unlikely to happen, but the reasoning seems to be the best way to insure the extreme case doesn't happen is don't let ANY case happen.

I understand the three-drug regimen was developed due to complaints (i.e. lawsuits) by civil rights advocates, to insure the prisoner doesn't experience any pain during the execution, as such pain may have been ruled "cruel and unusual."

The three-drug mix has been hard to come by lately due to one of the drugs no longer being manufactured in the USA:
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/georgia-considers-execution-drug-switch-041111

Canotila said:

It would make more sense for an assisted suicide to be facilitated in a hospital where the organs could be safely removed, and in some cases transplanted directly to recipients. There are also drugs currently given to brain dead patients to prepare them for organ donation before the organs are harvested. I think blood thinners is one of them but you'd have to check into that.

Click to expand...

Most drugs given to brain dead victums about to be harvested for organs are simply to keep the body alive until and during the surgery, vasopressors for one- I've taken care of these individuals and blood thinners are not normally given. It is difficult to maintain things like heart rate and blood pressure when the brain is no longer giving directions. It is a difficult balancing act to keep the organs healthy and yet keep the body alive.- and in answer to the OP's question- not the way they do it now.

For a futuristic scenario the best harvest would be if the person was put under anesthesia and harvested while still alive, and then overdosed.

I know this is an old thread...

There was an epiode of Monk where a man was murdered via food poisoning on his way to be executed. The poison messed up his internal organs, which were scheduled to be donated.

The killer was a man who would inherit a huge fortune if one of the expected organ recipients couldn't get a transplant.

Gary Gilmore's Eyes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gilmore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKG2rG-s29M

(Not the gas chamber though)