Brain-Death
Protocol for
Voluntary Execution
followed
by Organ Donation
SYNOPSIS:
The following suggested procedures for achieving
brain-death
in a prisoner being executed
who has volunteered to donate his or her organs after execution
will be modified, expanded, & adapted as needed
by various legal and medical systems around the world.
And this original essay will be modified over the years.
What are the best practices and procedures
for
executing the prisoner
in order to preserve his or her organs for immediate transplant?
How should brain-death be achieved and certified?
What safeguards should be fulfilled at each step in the process?
OUTLINE:
1. AT LEAST ONE YEAR OF ADVANCE PLANNING.
2. MEDICAL TESTING BY THE TRANSPLANT-TEAM
WITHIN PRISON
WALLS.
3.
BRAIN-DEATH IS THE IDEAL METHOD OF EXECUTION.
4. AN INDEPENDENT PHYSICIAN
CERTIFIES THAT
THE PRISONER IS DEAD.
5. THE BODY BECOMES THE PROPERTY
OF THE MEDICAL
INSTITUTION
THAT HAS
AGREED IN ADVANCE
TO ACCEPT THE
DONATED ORGANS.
6. NEWS MEDIA WILL WANT TO KNOW WHO GOT THE ORGANS.
Brain-Death
Protocol for
Voluntary Execution
followed by Organ Donation
by
James Leonard Park
The prisoner has volunteered to be executed.
Only about 1 prisoner in 1,000 will freely select this method of
meeting death.
And elaborate safeguards will be needed to make absolutely certain
that the prisoner is really
making a free choice for execution
—and
is not being coerced, manipulated, or rewarded in any way.
Another chapter asks this question:
"Can a Prisoner Ever Make a Free Choice?"
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/FREE-PRI.html
This
chapter includes 10 safeguards, which call for the opinions of
others
about the voluntariness of the prisoner's choice of execution.
And because 'voluntary execution' seems such a paradox,
it receives a full explanation here:
"Voluntary Execution: Better than Capital Punishment?":
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/CY-VX.html.
1. AT LEAST ONE YEAR OF
ADVANCE
PLANNING.
In order to assure that the prisoner is
choosing a voluntary execution,
this decision must be re-affirmed at least once per month
over a period
of 12 months or more.
The prisoner can prove that he or she is freely choosing
execution
by various methods of writing, speaking, & recording the decision
for a wide variety of persons not connected with the prison system.
The prisoner should retain the right to rescind or
postpone
the decision for voluntary execution
up until the last moment of consciousness.
This freedom to change the plan for death will make it obvious
that the prisoner was not
under pressure to accept execution.
The witnesses at the execution will observe
the last re-affirmation of the choice to die at this time.
If the prisoner is offering organs for
transplant after execution,
then the cooperating transplant-team will be allowed to do any testing
beginning at some time at least six months
into the period for proving that the decision for death is really
voluntary
and that the prisoner continues to be determined
to follow this course toward voluntary execution.
Thus, the transplant-team will not become involved
with prisoners
who change their minds about voluntary execution early in the process.
If prisoners initially determined to accept voluntary execution
(perhaps followed by organ donation)
later decide that they would like to live a bit longer in prison,
they can cancel their plans
or postpone the date of
voluntary
execution.
But the prisoners who continue to re-affirm their
plans
for voluntary execution followed by organ donation
will cooperate fully with all of the necessary medical testing
to make sure their organs will be viable after execution
and to determine their
tissue and blood types
in order to match them with the best recipients of their donated
organs.
Because of problems and objections that will
necessarily arise
concerning the first voluntary executions followed by organ donation,
the planning period will
probably be more than one year.
But each additional month of planning and preparation
will provide further proof that this plan for saving lives
can be a valid and meaningful way for a prisoner to choose death.
2. MEDICAL TESTING BY THE
TRANSPLANT-TEAM
WITHIN PRISON
WALLS.
Beginning about 6 months into the planning process
—which
is also at least 6 months before the date of execution—
the most appropriate members of the transplant-team
will be permitted to visit, examine, question, & test the donating
prisoner.
Six months advance planning will make the
organ-donations
more successful than any others performed by the same transplant-team.
Usually they work with organs that
become available on very short
notice.
(Accident victims do not know their dates of death in advance.)
All expenses of this medical testing by the
transplant-team
will be borne by the transplant institution and not by the prison
system.
These costs will fall within the organ-procurement parts of
their
budgets.
Ultimately all of these costs will be part of the total cost of the
transplants.
And these expenses will be paid by
whatever health-care systems are paying
for the transplants.
The only additional cost to the prison system
will be whatever additional security might be needed
for allowing visits by medical
personnel
and all the communication that will be necessary
to coordinate the planning for organ-transplantation after execution.
Such advance cooperation among
the
transplant-team, the prisoner, & the prison system
will give everyone involved ample opportunity
to re-consider their thinking about the whole process
of voluntary execution followed by organ donation.
Some of the medical personnel might decide not to participate
because they do not want to
know the donor as a person
before they see the brain-dead body on the operating table.
Such advance planning and coordination
(embracing several months of time)
will allow everyone involved to reconsider their plans.
The prisoner must re-affirm his or her decision
to choose voluntary execution and organ donation
at least six more times during this second half
of the one-year count-down to the day of execution.
And the fact of the continuing cooperation with the
transplant-team
should be dramatic proof to distant skeptics
that this prisoner is really choosing a voluntary execution
to be followed by the donation of his or her useful organs.
The doctors examining the prisoner and testing his or her
organs
will be able to testify that as far as they could tell
the donor was not being manipulated or coerced in any way.
If the transplant-team discovers any medical
conditions in the prisoner
that must be addressed before organs can be transplanted,
these can be corrected during the remaining months before execution.
For example, the prisoner might have some infectious disease,
which can be completely cured before execution.
This will allow the doctors to affirm that the organs are free of
disease
with a higher degree of certainty than is usually possible
when an organ-donor dies without any advance planning.
Some potential recipients of the organs to be
donated
might decline to
receive these specific organs
because they came from an executed criminal.
Others in the waiting pool of patients needing organs
will happily step into this gap
because having continued life
is more important to them
than the identify of the
donor.
In the normal, emergency situations of
organ-donation,
no one has the luxury of time for reflection.
The transplant-team will continue to accept ordinary donations
during all of the months of preparation for this special donation.
And they will have ample opportunity to compare the procedures
they normally use for obtaining, preserving, & transplanting organs
to the special circumstances of a donation from an executed
prisoner.
Those members of the transplant-team who have qualms
about accepting organs obtained from an executed prisoner
will not be forced to participate.
They can be assigned to other duties at the transplant center
whenever the prisoner-donor is being evaluated
and when this particular
dead-donor
comes into their institution.
3. BRAIN-DEATH IS
THE
IDEAL METHOD OF EXECUTION.
Brain-death is now well-established as a definition
of death.
When the human brain has no oxygen for a few minutes, it
dies.
Brain-death is declared after elaborate testing
to make certain that this brain will never resume its normal functions.
And when brain-death has been certified by a physician
who has used all
the appropriate tests,
then all others should agree that
this executed prisoner is now
dead.
The specific tests for the cessation of
brain-functions
will not be included here since they are too technical for most of us.
Also, they are subject to continual revisions.
The Internet provides plenty of (constantly updated)
information under this search-term: "brain death protocol".
Slight modifications of the standard methods for
determining brain-death
will likely be made for the situation of intentionally-creating
brain-death
as a means of executing a willing prisoner
with the additional plan to donate organs after
execution.
For example, when brain-death is achieved by the
executioner
rather than accidentally resulting from an auto
crash,
the doctor who must declare brain-death
will know the exact
mechanism by which this brain died.
The elaborate testing sometimes needed to rule-out
conditions easily confused with brain-death
will not be needed in
the case of voluntary execution.
This brain did not suffer accidental drowning, freezing, or
drug-overdose.
The duration of oxygen-deprivation, for example, will be known precisely
—because
it was achieved by controlled conditions in the prison.
Also, because this was a planned execution, not an accidental death,
the usual delay for re-testing will probably not be necessary.
Instead of attempting to restore
the functions of this brain,
the medical people will be cooperating in a process
intended to terminate
all functions of this brain.
(And, as said before, doctors and nurses who have doubts
about accepting organs from executed prisoners
will not be required to participate.)
However, perhaps the first few executions
by brain-death
will have to be prolonged in order to assure all distant skeptics
that the prisoner is absolutely
and permanently dead.
Because 'life-support' systems will be used to preserve the organs,
there will be less need to rush to the operating room.
When the organ-donor was a victim of an accident,
the organs must be harvested immediately
because the damaged body even with 'life-support' systems
will not be able to maintain the organs indefinitely.
The body of the executed prisoner might be kept inside the prison
walls
for 24 hours after the execution just to assure skeptics
that the prisoner is really
dead and can never be
revived.
The 'life-support' systems provided by the
transplant-team
will keep the organs alive within the body of the brain-dead donor.
And these 'life-support' systems will continue to operate
while the body is moved to the transplant center,
where the specific patients chosen to receive these organs
have been prepared in advance.
4. AN INDEPENDENT
PHYSICIAN
CERTIFIES THAT
THE PRISONER IS DEAD.
Even in executions achieved by any others means,
the prisoner's death must be declared
by a physician.
Normally it is obvious to all observers and witnesses
that the prisoner is dead and that he or she died by execution.
But it is nevertheless
required that the prison doctor
(or some other licensed physician employed for this purpose)
examine the body in detail to make certain that death has occurred.
In the case of brain-death achieved by a new method
of execution,
it will be especially important for an independent physician to certify
death.
In this case, the regular prison doctor might not be sufficient
because most doctors are not trained
in the specific tests needed to certify brain-death.
Therefore, in the case of brain-death as a method of execution,
a specialist in determining
brain-death might be needed.
Everyone must be convinced that the
prisoner has been executed.
The warden of the prison will record the date and time of the
execution.
The news media will be informed of the exact time of death.
5. THE BODY
BECOMES THE
PROPERTY
OF THE MEDICAL
INSTITUTION
THAT HAS AGREED IN ADVANCE
TO
ACCEPT THE DONATED ORGANS.
At first it might seem like a minor detail,
but the legal possession
of the body of the executed prisoner
symbolizes in one concrete way the transition from life to death.
The prisoner has sacrificed his or her life in an organized way
in order that others might benefit from his or her death.
All future costs for maintaining this body fall within
the medical care of those who
will receive the donated organs.
The prison system pays nothing
after the execution of the prisoner.
While still connected to the all necessary
'life-support' systems,
the body of the executed prisoner will be moved to the transplant
center.
This can be done in an orderly and dignified way.
It will not be an emergency transportation of a brain-dead donor,
which usually must be accomplished at great speed
because the organs are dying within the body of the donor.
The organs of the executed donor will be relatively
easy to preserve
because the medical people who will be taking care of the donor's body
will know the exact cause of death
and any other particular facts about this donor
that might be relevant to what will happen to the organs
after the donor's body reaches the transplant center.
For example, if the transplant-team knows in
advance
that the donor's heart is weak or has some artificial parts
(and will therefore not be used for transplant),
they will make all necessary preparations to keep other organs working
while the body is moved to the transplant center.
If they know that some
organs will not be
usable,
the organ-procurement team can do their best to protect the better
organs,
perhaps by sacrificing the organs they were not planning to transplant.
6. NEWS MEDIA WILL WANT
TO
KNOW
WHO GOT THE ORGANS.
In the first cases of voluntary
execution followed by organ donation,
the mass media will be intensely interested
in what lives were saved by
the donated organs.
And this can become the most positive part of the whole story.
Because of the careful advance planning possible
with voluntary execution followed by organ donation,
more organs than usual will probably be transplanted.
None of the organs will be
damaged by the cause of death
—which
is usually the case with accident-victims.
Also, the initial horror stimulated by some media
coverage
will be overcome by the living testimony of some organ-recipients,
who are very grateful for this gift of life,
no matter where their new organs came from.
If they had not received these specific organs,
they would probably be dead
now.
And if they had received organs from entirely other
donors,
someone else who was
waiting for organs would now be dead
—because
of the lack of transplantable organs.
If the various news media handle this story well,
more people will be
encouraged to sign up as organ-donors.
If a prisoner can
donate organs to save lives, then why can't I?
Ordinary organ-donors do not usually know their dates of death,
but they can still specify in advance
their wish to donate their
organs after their deaths.
And the media might focus on other
dimensions of organ-donation.
The more positive stories
we read or view in any media,
the more likely we will cooperate in donating our own organs
and the organs of other family members.
When lives can be saved
by organs
that would otherwise be buried or
burned,
why not transplant them into the bodies of the living?
Donated organs can ensure many more
years of meaningful living
for the people who receive such gifts of life.
Created
April 22, 2010; Revised 4-28-2010; 8-27-2010; 10-25-2010;
2-5-2011;
4-14-2011; 7-8-2011; 12-11-2011; 4-20-2012; 10-12-2012;
6-29-2013; 9-7-2013; 10-4-2013; 10-5-2013; 10-30-2013;
4-23-2014;
2-1-2015; 10-27-2015; 9-8-2016; 1-30-2018; 8-22-2019; 12-1-2020;
AUTHOR:
James Leonard Park is an independent writer and
medical ethicist.
He has written a few other essays on closely related themes,
which are linked below.
Much more about him is available on his website, linked at the bottom.
See
especially the section devoted to medical ethics.
See some related on-line essays:
Brain-Death
as
a Method of Voluntary Execution
Voluntary
Execution:
Better than Capital Punishment?
Voluntary
Execution Followed by Organ Donation
Organ
Donation
After Voluntary Death
Can
Prisoners
Ever Make a Free Choice?
Do
Organ Carry
Personal Character?
The
Dead-Donor
Rule:
How Dead Do You Have to Be?
Choosing Your Date of Death:
How to Achieve a Timely Death
—Not
too Soon,
Not too Late
Choosing
Your
Own Pathway towards Death
Organ
Donation After Voluntary Death
A
Facebook Page has been created:
Prisoner
Organ Donation.
This
group welcomes participation by anyone
interested in organ
donation from death-row:
prisoners
who have Internet access, family members, friends,
lawyers,
prison authorities, transplant surgeons, medical ethicists,
journalists, & students.
The
above suggested protocol for voluntary execution followed by organ
donation
has
become Chapter 5 of Organ
Donation After
Execution.
This
Internet
Book was discussed chapter-by-chapter
on
this Facebook Page—Prisoner
Organ Donation—in
2014.