ORGANS-FOR-LIFE BILL DIVERTS BID FOR DONORS

The idea is nothing short of ridiculous. Legislation proposed in the Missouri Legislature would commute death-row sentences for those inmates willing to donate a kidney or bone marrow.

Its sponsor, state Rep. Chuck Graham of Columbia, calls it a life-for-a-life bill. More aptly, it should be called prisoners-make-desperate-attempt-to-save-their-hides bill.

Missouri shouldn't be in the business of swapping body parts for justice.

First off, very few of death-row inmates would be healthy enough to donate. Even the sponsor concedes that out of 100 death-row inmates in the state, only six or seven would qualify. That's because many criminals are former drug addicts or alcoholics. Their organs may be damaged by years of unhealthy living.

Even the St. Louis-based Kidney Foundation of Eastern Missouri has opposed the bill. It is no coincidence that every organ-donor group in the nation refuses organ donations from prisoners. The health risks are simply too great, especially for the spread of transmittable diseases.

Potential recipients may balk as well. They may well turn down a donation from an inmate due to the potential health risks. A new kidney could save their life for the short term, but what if the recipient contracts AIDS? It may put more pressure on the donor organization to open their files on all who donates. This kind of pick-and-choose donors would snarl the entire process.

And what about the victims' families? Their rights and opinions are too often overlooked. Few of these families would endorse such a notion. These condemned men and women had their day in court, and a jury or judge handed down a death sentence. It is the severest penalty available and not one juries took lightly. Lawmakers have no right to second-guess a jury's final decision.

And lastly, these inmates would be giving this gift of life for the wrong reason. They wouldn't be doing it to help someone else. They'd be doing it save their own life. That's a shallow victory.

The sponsor feels the bill would save the taxpayers money because inmates who qualify would have to relinquish all appeals. Appeals, he said, make it costlier to execute a prisoner than to incarcerate them for life. But whose to say a prisoner would embrace this option right away? The inmate could file years of appeals, see the effort was going nowhere and then apply for the organ donation. Then the cost savings would be substantially reduced.

There may be a real need for organ donations, but this isn't the way to go. Awareness campaigns should take aim at healthy people in an effort to increase the number of donors.

This bill should die a quiet death before it makes Missouri the laughingstock of the nation.