I was shocked and horrified by the report that someone in the Massachusetts Legislature has crafted a bill offering reduced sentences to prisoners of the state for donating their organs. Am I living in liberal, caring Massachusetts or China or India? As bad as the proposal itself is the contention that this is an attempt to rectify “health inequities” due to “unjust incarceration” suffered by “Black and Brown” people. What? We’re going to rectify unjust incarceration by asking incarcerated folks to give up their body parts? What sort of convoluted reasoning is that? “It’s voluntary” hardly addresses the 20-something who wants freedom and has no idea how he’ll feel at 50 without all his organs.

Let’s hope and pray that this misguided, manipulative, grotesque proposal goes nowhere and that no one in our western Massachusetts legislative delegation gives it any form of support.

Kathe Geist

Charlemont

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