Coerced Kenosis: The Moral Hazards of Prison Organ Donation

A recent Massachusetts bill seeks to incentivize living organ donation among the state's incarcerated population by offering volunteers reduced sentences. While the incentive has been removed from the bill, the bill remains controversial. This essay argues that insofar as carceral conditions unduly motivate incarcerated people to participate, living organ donation in prison remains a morally hazardous initiative. The essay suggests that the pervasiveness of medical neglect in Massachusetts prisons not only makes organ donation unsafe but it also implicitly renders the lives of those outside of prison more valuable than those inside. This falls short of Catholic teaching on human dignity. Drawing from the history of medical experimentation in US prisons, the essay posits how the state might unduly influence incarcerated people to become living donors by preying on their moral sentiments. In such instances, the self-gift of organ donation can be understood as a kind of exploited or coerced kenosis.