Media reports say Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has agreed to release Gladys and Jamie Scott, the sisters who have been jailed for 16 years for their involvement in a robbery that got them only $11 dollars.

There is one condition: Gladys, 36, who is healthy, should donate a kidney to her sister Jamie, 38 who is on dialysis and waiting for a kidney transplant.

The unusual release condition outraged ethicists and civil rights advocates. They were worried that the forced donation could have been in violation of organ donation laws, which require that any donation should come with "no pressure, no coercion and no reward", according to ABC News.

The story goes that the sisters lured two men to be robbed by three teen boys. No one got hurt in the case.  The robbers only served 2 years of an 8-year sentence.  The sisters who are black were convicted of masterminding a robbery and got sentenced for 18 years in jail.  

Civil rights advocates believed the sentence was excessive and the Scott sisters should have been released without any condition after they have been in jail for so many years.

Here are some basics for kidney donation.

Kidney

One of a pair of organs that control the amount of water in the body and filter urea and other wastes into urine. The kidneys also produce a hormone (erythropoietin) that controls the production of red blood cells.

Diseases and Disorders

  • High blood pressure causes kidney damage, can lead to kidney failure, and is—as a result—an important predictor of kidney failure.
  • Diabetes (see pancreas) is a leading cause of kidney failure.
  • Other diseases (cystic kidney diseases) can cause the kidneys to become inflamed or can produce cysts in the kidneys that prevent them from functioning properly.
  • People with severe kidney disease are often placed on dialysis machines

Transplant Statistics

  • About 14,000 kidney transplants are performed each year. Just over one third of transplanted kidneys are from living donors.
  • At any point, about 55,000 people are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant.
  • Every year, over 3,000 people die while waiting for a kidney transplant.
  • The one-year survival rate for kidney transplant recipients is about 95 percent.

Interesting Fact

After kidney transplants, most recipients have three kidneys because their own kidneys are usually left in place. (cited from organdonor.gov)

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