According to 2021 data, the United States’ opt-in system of posthumous organ donation results in seventeen Americans dying each day waiting for vital organs, while many good undonated organs go to the grave with the corpse. One of the most aggressive, and compelling, proposals to resolve this tragedy is postmortem organ conscription, also called routine salvaging or organ draft. This proposal entails postmortem retrieval of needed organs, regardless of the prior authorization or refusal of the deceased or his family. The argument of most proponents of conscription relies heavily upon a denial of the possibility of posthumous harms. While I also deny the possibility of posthumous harms, I argue this denial fails to acknowledge other serious wrongs that could be done to the deceased person and his corpse. While the person can no longer be harmed, his life, in a roughly biographical sense, can be damaged. Humans highly value life in this sense, often more than biological life. Respect for this sense of life also informs appropriate treatment of particular human corpses, which already have special value beyond mere resource. I will argue that conscription proponents fail to appropriately value lives and human corpses. This failure can lead to multiple wrongs, among them a wrongful exploitation of the vulnerability of a person’s life and corpse and a disrespect of persons. While it is possible that some biographical lives could be made better, or at least less bad, by conscription, the judgments such decisions would require make conscription bad policy.

根据 2021 年的数据，美国死后器官捐献的选择加入制度导致每天有 17 名美国人在等待重要器官时死亡，而许多未捐献的好器官则随着尸体一起进入坟墓。解决这一悲剧的最积极、最引人注目的建议之一是死后器官征募，也称为常规抢救或器官征用。该提议需要在死后取回所需的器官，而不管死者或其家人事先授权或拒绝。大多数征兵支持者的论点在很大程度上依赖于否认死后受到伤害的可能性。虽然我也否认死后受到伤害的可能性，但我认为这种否认没有承认可能对死者及其尸体造成的其他严重错误。虽然这个人不能再受到伤害，从粗略的传记意义上讲，生命可能会受到损害。人类在这个意义上高度重视生命，往往超过生物生命。对这种生命意识的尊重也有助于对特定人类尸体的适当处理，这些尸体已经具有超越单纯资源的特殊价值。我会争辩说，征兵的支持者未能适当地重视生命和人类尸体。这种失败可能导致多种错误，其中包括错误地利用人的生命和尸体的脆弱性以及对人的不尊重。虽然有可能通过征兵使某些传记生活变得更好，或者至少不那么糟糕，但此类决定所需的判断会使征兵成为糟糕的政策。