Inmate wants execution delayed so he can donate liver to sister

MICHIGAN CITY, Indiana (AP) -- An inmate condemned to die by injection next week asked the Indiana Parole Board to grant him clemency -- or at least enough time -- to donate his liver to his ailing sister.

"My sister is sick. She needs a liver," Gregory Scott Johnson said during a hearing Monday. "At this point, everything else -- including my own life -- is secondary to trying to help her if I can."

Johnson, 40, was sentenced to death for the 1985 murder of 82-year-old Ruby Hutslar. Authorities said he broke into her house, beat and stomped on her, then set a fire. His execution is scheduled for May 25.

Recipients' survival chances are much better if they receive a whole liver, said Dr. Joseph Tector of the Indiana University School of Medicine. Unlike some other experts, Tector has said the lethal injection of potassium chloride used in Indiana executions would not necessarily render the liver unusable after Johnson's death.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/05/17/execution.organ.donate.ap/index.html

hearing he didn't bring up his sister's ailment until last moment.

and really, what's an extra few weeks of life if you're on death row?

I say let him give his liver and more power to him.

I thought that the Rethugs were all for 'the culture of life.'

They were all over saving Terri Schiavo (without going into my personal stance on that).

Surely, they want to save the sister's life under the best possible circumstances.

search on net found he was to be executed tomorrow am.

Is vengeance more important to you.

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Let him die via surgery. Or would putting him out via anesthetic be too peaceful (rather than IV KCl)?

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sounds spot on to me.

operating table to die. What fucking century is this? Do you consider yourself civilised or in any way from a civilised society.

Progress? Fucking barbarian. Mind you, you probably don't mean it your just a keyboard tough guy who doesn't believe in what he says so i'll let you off.

humanity is such a wonderful thing

Lethal injection ruining perfectly good organs, or giving away those organs to people who need them, then letting him die?

Do surgery, patch him up, kill him sounds totally wrong as does kill him, then remove his liver. By the way, I am not a keyboard tough guy, I'm a middle aged nurse who has been working in healthcare for a long time, dealing with life and death, perhaps seeing life and death matters differently than the public.

If he's gonna die, do it humanely and use what he can give rather than shooting him full of crap, painful death, possibly making organs useless.

after his liver has been cut out. Your implying, leave him cut open on an operating table to die. So its execution by the removal of internal organs. They used to call that "Quartered" in the middle ages, taking your guts out while still alive and leaving you to die.

Your second post starts mentioning him dying peacefully and humanely under anasthetic, that was not your implication in your first post.

:eyes::eyes::eyes::eyes:

Unless you want to put a poisoned liver in his sister.

Other than the whole KILLING HIM thing, I don't see the savagery here. It's the same deal. He gets knocked out, he never wakes up.

What's the difference?

they used to call it "quartered", thats what his post implied. No dying humanely it said "Then just walk awaY" The implications of removing body parts from prisoners as a method of killing them, to be given to other people is a dangerous precedent. Best way is, remove the state's right to murder its own people.

If you could find a doctor to perform that surgery and then let him die on the table, that man shouldn't be a doctor in the first place.

heck, let him offer to farm out all his organs, we'll take them when we could use them.

You really don't want to start encouraging organ farming, do you? Anyway, under the law and medical ethics, a doctor cannot perform an operation that would kill a healthy person.

I think Indiana still has an option for the death penalty, perhaps hanging?

I am opposed to the DP in most cases. To me, this doesn't rise to the level of horror that is my threshold. Like that father that killed his two kids, the Bundy's of the world who tortured their victims to death and so on. Life in prison for garden-variety murders.

Anyway, I hope they find a way to get the woman the liver. I have no idea if the drugs would ruin the liver; seems to me he would be dead and the drugs would stop moving long before they got to the liver.

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He's going to sacrifice ALL his organs to oblivion, why not let them do some good?

I'm just as against the death penalty as you are, and I agree with that idea.

If there is any purpose to his life, let it be a last attempt of an offering. I say if he donates his liver to his sister the rest of this body should go to science.

Every one of the people who were clamoring for Terry Schiavo to be kept alive, should be applauding this man's actions, and should be contacting the governor and holding candlelight vigils for his sister.

*crickets chirping*

organs going to waste, poisoned with chemicals.

state sponsored murder. The authorities murdering its own citizens, this is hilarious.

Wow.. guess that scum of the earth didn't really think about how it might feel for someone's relative if.. say.. their mother/sister/grandmother were stomped to death and set on fire. Guess it would kind of hurt to lose a relatve, wouldn't it? Now he gives a shit cuz it's HIS family??

...not all prisoners on Death Row have been guilty of the crimes of which they've been convicted. In fact, more than one hundred have been freed from their death sentences based on DNA findings. What we don't know is how many have been convicted of crimes they didn't commit.

While there's a very good chance this guy is guilty as charged I wish they would do DNA tests on every Death Row inmate to verify it.

admitted to the murder, and to this day still admits to being guilty.

The man should be given the chance to donate whatever organs he wants.

...because of the crime he committed?

I don't get these people tonight :shrug:

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Setting up an organ trade in the prisons gives some sectors of society a strong interest in imprisoning and killing as many people as possible. Call it the China effect.

...were you referring to something else?

If he can get confirmation sister is an identical tissue match for his liver donation, probably stands a chance.

However, how do we know his liver is healthy to take a transplant?

under duress no a good option

Are they going to leave a tiny little bit to keep him alive long enough so that they can transport him over to Indiana's finest Death Chamber and kill him for the pleasure of the victim's family? This is of course America, where death and destruction are common place!

From the original post:-

"Tector has said the lethal injection of potassium chloride used in Indiana executions would not necessarily render the liver unusable after Johnson's death."

Maybe I misunderstood an earlier article I read but I believe one option (if there was a tissue match and if his liver was in the right condition) was to take a portion (possibly) half of his liver and implant that half in his sister. He would be allowed to recover (despite what some believe should be his fate), recuperate and his execution would be postponed. Recovery from this type of surgery takes about two months so about then he should be in good enough health to be killed. Ironic.

liver could be transplanted to his sister (assuming she actually needs a transplant and is a tissue match) and under normal circumstances he would live a long life, except that they plan to execute him.

The liver can regenerate, so the transplanted part in her would regenerate while what was left in him would do the same.

Shoot him full of poison and his liver's no use to her.

While they're doing the liver transplant, he could donate one kidney, too. You only need one kidney to live.