prisoner-leaving-prison

A week ago, a young boy died because he didn’t find a donor for a bone marrow transplant. On the same day, a person took the life sentence for killing four people. Every day people die because they cannot get organs that they needed. And every day, people get in jail for their crimes.

For people afflicted with certain conditions, one solution (oftentimes the only solution) is organ donors. Becoming organ donors is something that we all must do. Nowadays, someone who is going to die can easily give life to other people by donating organs; even a healthy person can register as a donor.

Still, this “kind gesture” is far from what sick people need. Speaking in numbers, I believe the distance between donors and people who need a transplant is very big.

On the other hand, we see jails full of prisoners who have committed major crimes and who will die in prison. Prisoners that in some point might turn their lives around 180 degrees and still they don’t feel remorse for their crime. Actually, it doesn’t matter if they have any regrets or not: a crime is still a crime, especially when that crime is a murder.

Weighing the value of the life of a prisoner sentenced for life and a sick person’s with terminal/incurable disease we all know that they are considered equal. The truth is that we also know that a prisoner’s life isn’t equal to someone who is dying of a disease, that’s why the former is in jail; punished to protect other people.

Yes, life was never fair. But also in life we have learnt to make up for adversities (for example we take an umbrella when it rains or we build houses to protect ourselves from the weather). That is what doctors do when they try to find a cure to a disease, when they do experiments for the good of mankind using small animals as laboratory animals (mice most of all). Doctors don’t wait for a cure to find itself, so they fight with all their might.

Think about how many people need eyes because they are blind, how many need a heart, how many need this or that.

Using the same logic, there is a theory of mine, according which prisoners guilty of major crimes could become laboratory animals or organ donors. This mind remind you of what Josef Mengelle did, but it’s not the same, because this is murderers we are talking about, destined to die in prison. This is about the good of humanity, not our hate towards people, although I understand that they have the same core.

I know, this theory sounds inhumane, but it has advantages.

First of all, any life-sentenced prisoner can ask to be an organ donor or even be experimented upon so the cure for a disease is found. This is the least they can do for forgiveness (or because they truly want to help other people at the last moment), sacrifice their life for the good of others. That may make them look better in other people’s eyes or even to themselves.

We must never forget that no one is born a criminal, bad choices make people criminals.

Think about how good our society would be if sick people in need of transplant can find what they need through life-sentenced prisoners.

Consider how criminals(-to-be) (or maybe all—but this is wishful thinking) would be “afraid” to kill other people because when they get caught, their body belongs to the government for experiments or transplants and not to them.

Of course all people have the same rights; of course it sounds awkward to take someone’s life (even if he killed many people). And what about the Hippocratic Oath, some may ask. Sadly, this oath is not valid in our times, because there is little morality, and money, well, money makes the world go round! Like it or not we know that sometimes we have to do something extreme if we have a very good profit out of it. Anyway, as we know this is a sensitive matter.

And what about government? Do they have the power to institutionalize such a law? I believe they can, even if it is not that simple.

It’s up to each government to decide which criminals become laboratory animals. A first guess would be serial killers; criminals that have been convicted without the slightest doubt, so we can avoid any mistakes. If an inmate is “chosen”, the government should keep him under repression just in case that he decides to commit suicide.

A Russian writer, the great F.M. Dostojewski said that “you can see a country’s culture by looking at prisoners’ living standards”. This is so true, but, unfortunately, humanity hasn’t reached perfection in many issues. Maybe in another world this was self-explanatory, but now, and here this is just another wishful thinking.

Taking organs from life-sentenced prisoners is not a punishment; it’s saving other people’s lives. It would be good for us to think about with a clear mind, to see the what we don’t want to see: that all the people are not equal, and criminals can do something good for other humans who happened to have bad luck as far as health is concerned.

No, I’m not going to say that a human smile is the supreme good; I’m just saying that we must fight for a human’s smile; we have to fight our inner demons, and God help us do the right thing …or do less damage with our decisions.

Konstantinos Pamfiliss