As I explained in my post, offering reduced sentencing for joining the transplant list is ethically ambiguous and undermines the altruistic nature of donation. If a prisoner wanted to donate without the reduced sentencing that would be altruistic.

I am someone who received multiple transplants from living donors. I care about the people who donated to me. I am not “gatekeeping” transplants - I am advocating for the rights of the donor.

Our justice system is often inequitable; this plan would put incarcerated persons in a compromising position and could influence them to make a major life decision that they would not ordinarily make if they weren’t incarcerated. On top of that you have the fact that the population of incarcerated persons is majorly skewed racially and socioeconomically you’re creating a system that robs minorities and lower income people of true autonomy and essentially using them as spare parts. If you can’t see how that’s ethically reprehensible I don’t know what to tell you.

I’m very aware people die on transplant lists - not sure why you’re telling me, a person who has been on the list twice, how it works. This is not a solution to the waiting list.

I’ve had multiple organ transplants and think this is a terrible idea. It’s unethical, it’s coercive, it’s a slippery slope to some Repo: the Genetic Opera shit.

We are so fortunate to live in a state with some of the best doctors, nurses, hospitals. I can’t imagine they would find this ethical. Organ donation is a huge process. You need to be medically evaluated as a match to the recipient but you also undergo testing to make sure you are physically and mentally capable of transplant. Part of that evaluation is a meeting with a mental health professional to glean of course if you’re capable of handling the post-transplant regimen but also to determine if there are strings attached to donation. They will not push forward with a match where there is ethical ambiguity. I don’t see how this program would proceed past that stage because it is very much a transaction with strings attached.

If we want to increase the pool of available organs there are steps we can take like educating the general public about live donation, encouraging people to register as a donor, dispelling myths about transplant etc. But probably the biggest thing we can do is challenge dialysis companies like DaVita and Fresenius - who lobby against bills that expand access to prescription drug coverage for transplant recipients. These are for profit companies that make money by keeping people on dialysis, even when transplant is often the better path. They’ve lobbied against bills that would expand Medicare coverage of immunosuppressive drugs, which are required for the life of the transplant. The number one cause of transplant rejection and return to dialysis is non-compliance - but this is usually due to patients not being able to afford medication. You want the list to be shorter, the cost to tax payers to be less (Medicare funds dialysis) - you don’t grow the pool of available kidneys, you shrink the pool of who needs them by providing better support to transplant patients and stopping for profit dialysis companies from predatory practices (including advising dialysis as a long term solution to organ failure).

I’ve had two transplants (kidneys) through BWH and completely agree with you. It’s massively unethical and as a recipient I would not feel comfortable with this at all. It’s coercive and exploitive.

Good luck to you though friend! I have been there waiting and I promise it will get so much better.

I grew up in Franklin. There used to be a coffee shop downtown called Mel Divas that had open mic nights, games, sandwiches and bakery items and of course coffee. The rent downtown was too high and the place went under.

It was 2020. First Cong. Church of Woodstock. There were a few local places we felt welcomed but many people in the area are bigoted. I also lost my job after I came out and experienced discrimination in my workplace; worked in Killingly at a mfg company.

LOL. If you know you know how stupid this question is, but I’m not giving any anecdotes to confirm it.

I lived in the quiet corner for a decade - there is definitely klan activity in the area. The area is in a transitional phase with a lot of new people moving in but there’s still a pocket of very rural, very racist people.

My wife and I moved away because the pride flag in our town was stolen multiple times from a local church, eventually the flagpole was CUTDOWN to prevent the church from putting the flag back up. It was not a safe place to be gay, let alone a different race, and many people were emboldened and outspoken with their dated views.

Calm down, the same thing happened in Mass. Its basic supply and demand. Pricing will come down as more dispensaries open for rec. Until then make the trip up here and buy your weed.