In a country that now recycles everything from glass, plastic, rubber, steel and even cell phones, why do we constantly throw away the most important resource available to us? ‘Human Life’.

How many men and women languish away in prisons across this country of ours, men and women who have made decisions and choices that have cost them their lives? How many sit in cells and walk prison yards who will never know freedom and could make a significant difference in a dying child’s life? How many could do something useful, such as donating an organ, a kidney, a lung, bone marrow? How many men and women who have failed their communities and families and want to finally do something positive, with a life that will otherwise be wasted, but are not allowed to do so because of state and federal restrictions? How many children and adolescents and adults could be saved if people like myself would be allowed to donate a life that is nothing but a burden on society. What better way for anyone who has taken so much from humanity to give back?

Think if you would on what science could do with viable, living bodies? How well or quickly would medical advances be made with known variables, with bodies that have been preserved by perfect exercise regiments and dietary standards. How quickly would advances in cancer research become a reality? How do we, as a learned, civilized people, allow such possibilities to pass us by? How can we continue to do so and tell the children of our world, that we have tried everything?

My idea is simple and I am willing to be the first prisoner to prove that it can be not only viable, but successful, that people who are incarcerated for long periods of time and have no probable chance of freedom, that these lives of people who are beyond saving can grant new life, beautiful life to a child whose life would otherwise end without hope.

Instead of wasting these lives they can help the progress of science and allow those who would be on organ waiting lists to receive transplants that will give them a fresh lease on life. Such lives can bring hope that never existed before for children who are dying, hope for their families, hope for the future!

When will we look beyond punishing people who have made mistakes? When will we allow these men and women to make a choice and allow them not only to give back to their communities, but to die with the dignity of knowing their life made a difference! Let us begin to recycle the only real thing that will save this planet, HUMAN LIFE!

Michael Ketcham #241552
Alger Correctional Facility
N6141 Industrial Park Drive
Munising, Michigan. 49862