Organ donations can also save the lives of donors

Jeff Ewers is a sex offender. After graduating from Vanderbilt University with a degree in neuroscience, he was arrested for possession of materials depicting the sexual abuse of children. He was sentenced to two years in prison. While serving his sentence, he read an article by Frank Bures about living organ donors. He began to think that this could be a way to give positive meaning to a life that had gone so wrong.

After being released from prison and returning to normal life, Ewers began the process of organ donation. He was rejected because he was no longer able to exercise due to a spinal cord injury. Undeterred, he lost weight and improved his fitness while also stopping all medications. He was evaluated again and this time accepted.

Still, Ewers was torn about donating, fearing that his offense would mean undoing everything he had tried to do. He had heard of my work in applied ethics and contacted me to discuss his plan. I told him that saving a child’s life was reason enough to continue. If he could show others on the U.S. sex offender registry – there are nearly a million – a path to redemption, it would multiply the good he could accomplish, especially for those whose lives could be saved, but also for the offenders themselves.

Ewers had had similar thoughts before. His own experience had shown him how deeply demoralizing and self-alienating it is to live as a sex offender in America, and there were other felons who probably had similar experiences. At least some of them, Ewers believes, are decent people whose lives have spiraled out of control but who would still appreciate the chance to save a life. Could he help instill in these people a sense of hope, drive, and altruistic spirit? Could his story spark a wave of generosity, saving more lives? In this way, Ewers hoped that his worst mistakes could facilitate positive change on a scale beyond anything he could otherwise achieve.

Each year in the United States, about 60 children with end-stage liver disease die while waiting for a liver transplant. Ewers decided to donate a lobe of his liver to an anonymous child on that waiting list, made the donation in August 2022, and recovered well.

The recipient was a 2-year-old boy with liver cancer whose mother was raising three other children alone. She had tried to donate a lobe of liver to her son, but surgeons had denied her permission. I contacted her earlier this year and she told me that her son was “living happily, like most 4-year-old boys, because Jeff donated part of his liver to him.” She added that she knew about Ewers’ past, but, “When it comes to my 2-year-old’s life, there is nothing to think about and no reason to hesitate when you have someone willing to do what he did for us.” In her opinion, “while a donation does not absolve you of past wrongdoing, it does make a difference in the lives of those in need and possibly how you are perceived in the future.”

That is surely the appropriate ethical response to what Ewers has done. He is currently being evaluated as a kidney donor.

Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, founder of The Life You Can Save and co-editor of Magazine for controversial ideasHe is the author of Practical Ethics, The life you can saveAnd Animal liberation nowand co-author (with Shih Chao-Hwei) of The Buddhist and the Ethicist (Shambhala Publications, 2023).

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2024. www.project-syndicate.org