News Briefs: Prisoner heart transplant renews scarcity debate
A California prison inmate serving 14 years for robbery received a heart transplant in January, turning up the heat in the debate over who should get desperately needed, but scarce, human organs. And, whether patients who have committed crimes against society "deserve" to receive transplants paid for with taxpayer funds.
Taxpayer financed
The transplant, paid for by the California Department of Corrections, is expected to cost $1 million with follow-up care, and occurred as 500 Californians waited for hearts, according to the Associated Press.
The operation saved the 31-year-old inmate from dying of a viral heart condition, says Russ Heimerich, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections.
Citing two court rulings in favor of inmate care, Heimerich said, "Our hands are pretty much tied. It’s not a question for this department to decide."
A 1976 U.S. Supreme Court ruling held that it is "cruel and unusual punishment" to withhold necessary medical care from inmates. And, in 1995, a federal court ordered prison officials to give a kidney transplant to an inmate whose request had been denied.
In addition, the ethics policy of the United Network for Organ Sharing, the organization that oversees the national transplant organ network, outs prison inmates on equal footing with all other patients.
The patient is currently in satisfactory condition at a prison medical facility near San Francisco.
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content