Alabama Dep't of Corrections has been stealing organs from prisoners (graphic descriptions)...

[Tiangou]

pdq wrote:
[quote=Tiangou]

...The lawsuits cite a 2017 UAB Division of Autopsy publication that said 23% of the division’s yearly income from 2006 to 2015 derived from corrections department autopsies. The corrections department pays UAB $2,200 per autopsy and $100 per toxicology test, according to the suits.

Believe it or not, that sounds like a typical charge for an autopsy...
That's fine... Except that they don't have permission to do it and they've been doing it secretly and money is changing hands over it which adds to the stink.

[gabester]

Lemon Drop wrote:
At least they waited until they were dead. I mean I hope...

I'm surprised you're the first to suggest that these decedents' missing organs may not have come from people who died in unexpected and sudden ways that would have prevented use / resale of said organs.

Especially when you consider the high "homocide rate" of the AL prison system.
Seems like it would be trivial for prison officials to pick a few healthy individuals to "have a fall on a bar of soap in the shower" and walk away with some pocket money.

pdq, I'm sure you have insight that might refute this, as I know it is never quite as simple as it looks, but I've lived most of my life in fear of drinking the wrong beverage at a less than reputable establishment and waking up in the infamous tub of ice missing an organ or two. Is there anybody here who doesn't?

[N-OS X-tasy!]

Blankity Blank wrote:
[quote=Ombligo]
You know something - I have no issues with it. Frankly, I wish it was required of all deaths unless there is a specific religious reason not to.

A corpse is just dead tissue, that some have attached a particular meaning to it is a different superstition. There is a desperate need for both transplant organs and material for medical research. If the liver (or whatever) of a corpse can save another, then some good has come out of that death.

I know my opinion won't be overly popular, but I'm dead serious about it.

Can’t agree for two reasons.

I am hugely uncomfortable with the concept that, at any time, an entity acting on behalf of the state can unilaterally declare even a human’s remains “their” property to do with as they see fit. A slippery slope.

Add to that even a sliver of room for there to be financial gain injected into the equation, and my discomfort increases tenfold.

I’m old enough, and have heard of enough, for my cynicism and wariness to run deep about such things.
This.

[Ted King]

gabester wrote:
[quote=Lemon Drop]
At least they waited until they were dead. I mean I hope...

I'm surprised you're the first to suggest that these decedents' missing organs may not have come from people who died in unexpected and sudden ways that would have prevented use / resale of said organs.

Especially when you consider the high "homocide rate" of the AL prison system.
Seems like it would be trivial for prison officials to pick a few healthy individuals to "have a fall on a bar of soap in the shower" and walk away with some pocket money.

pdq, I'm sure you have insight that might refute this, as I know it is never quite as simple as it looks, but I've lived most of my life in fear of drinking the wrong beverage at a less than reputable establishment and waking up in the infamous tub of ice missing an organ or two. Is there anybody here who doesn't?
With what we know about this so far, I don't think there is reason to think that sort of thing happened, but I do think it is worth investigating because money incentives sometimes lead to people doing nefarious things. That said, I think it's unlikely that an investigation would find that they authorities were targeting prisoners for death to harvest their organs.

[Lemon Drop]

That was a (very dark) joke Ted.

[Ted King]

Lemon Drop wrote:
That was a (very dark) joke Ted.

I should have trimmed it. This is what I was responding to from gabester:

Especially when you consider the high "homocide rate" of the AL prison system.

Seems like it would be trivial for prison officials to pick a few healthy individuals to "have a fall on a bar of soap in the shower" and walk away with some pocket money.

Maybe that was meant to be a dark joke, too. But sometimes on this forum it is hard to tell.