Ohio child killer's organ donation wish perplexes

(AP) Ohio child killer’s organ donation wish perplexes
By JULIE CARR SMYTH and AMANDA LEE MYERS
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio
The stay of execution for a convicted Ohio child killer seeking to donate his organs is posing perplexing ethical and medical questions that pit demand for life-saving transplants against the goals of incarceration.

With less than a day to go, Gov. John Kasich (KAY’-sik) postponed 40-year-old Ronald Phillips’ execution Wednesday as the state assesses his last-minute request.

Phillips had asked to give a kidney and his heart to ailing relatives.

Medical ethicist Arthur Caplan of New York University says “there’s a kind of redemption” in organ donation that conflicts with prison’s goal of stripping criminals of societal privileges.

Mater (MAY’-tuhr) Alexander, a liver transplant recipient from suburban Columbus, says inmates should be encouraged to do something good before they die.

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Myers reported from Cincinnati.

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