A Stitch in Haste

Yet another example of "try everything except a market solution" regarding kidney transplantation:

Prison inmates in South Carolina could get up to six months shaved off their sentences if they donated a kidney or their bone marrow, under a proposed bill before the state Senate.

"We have a lot of people dying as they wait for organs, so I thought about the prison population," said state Sen. Ralph Anderson, the bill's main sponsor. "I believe we have to do something to motivate them. If they get some good time off, if they get out early, that's motivation."
...
But it is almost certain to prompt fierce opposition from legal experts and prisoner rights advocates about whether inmates are able to make such a decision freely.

Compensating, in a tangible and meaningful way, a prison inmate for voluntarily donating a kidney is an acceptable practice, but compensating, in a tangible and meaningful way, a law-abiding citizen to do the same is somehow "demeaning" and "unethical"? I dare anyone to make that reasoning sensible.

There is nothing more demeaning and unethical than letting people suffer, or die, for no other reason than an irrational belief that markets are somehow "unclean" and must therefore not be allowed to contaminate health care.

(Via Kevin, M.D.)