Prison Blocks Inmate from Donating Organ

New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that Stephen Stage, 53, convicted of aggravated battery, wants to give his kidney to a woman whose plight he read about in the paper. The Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's Office, which runs the prison, says no.

Even though Medicaid, Wiltz's insurer, would cover all medical fees, including a blood test to determine whether she could receive Stage's kidney, Inglese said transferring deputy sheriffs to a hospital to guard Stage around the clock would be a drain on the department's already tight budget and leave the prison vulnerable.

That money "is the taxpayers' money," he said. "The Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's Office doesn't have the right to donate that money so someone can have a kidney transplant. . . . We need the money for people in the jail to receive health care, not people in the community."

- Arthur Caplan