What are the ethical and logistical issues in using death-row inmates
as a source of organs for transplantation? Has this ever happened
outside of China and Taiwan? Has legislation dealing with this even
been considered in any Western countries? Has this issue ever been
seriously addressed in the scholarly literature?

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Clarification of Question by djdoyle-ga on 06 Sep 2002 12:40 PDT

All three drugs (thiopental, pancuronium and KCl) used in execution by
lethal injection have no detrimental effects on organs to be explanted
in the concentrations/amounts ordinarily used for lethal injection.
Damage to organs occurs primarily because the heart and respiratory
muscles stop, the former from the KCl, the latter from the
pancuronium. This, of course, leads to cellular hypoxia. (The
thiopental merely serves to ensure unconsciousness.)

Note that this would not be the case for the toxins such as potassium
cyanide, which poison the electron transport chain at the level of the
cellular mitocondria.

As long as the harvested organs are immediately harvested, flushed and
continue to be appropriately perfused after the heart stops (as with
cold "Wisconsin" solution, or better yet a hemoglobin-containing
solution) they will do fine, within the limits of permissible
"ischemia time".

There is, however, a proviso. To prevent blood clotting, the use of
the anticoagulant heparin (about 300 to 400 units per kilogram body
weight) would have to be given intravenously a minute or two before
the lethal injection is administered (although it may not be strictly
necessary that it be done exactly this way (or at all); the Chinese
likely give the heparin after the shot to the head but before the
heart stops).

Of course, with cardiac explantation, there would be no need for any
lethal injection.

To answer one part of your question:

Has legislation dealing with this even been considered in any Western
countries?

I am not sure how you define Western, but the US is the only country I
would would call Western which still allows the death penalty.

Countries which, like the US, still have the death penalty:

Afghanistan
Algeria
Antigua and Barbuda
Armenia
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belize
Benin
Botswana
Burundi
Cameroon
Chad
China (People's Republic)
Comoros
Congo (Democratic Republic)
Cuba
Dominica
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Ghana
Guatemala
Guinea
Guyana
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Korea, North
Korea, South
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
 Laos
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Malawi
Malaysia
Mauritania
Mongolia
Morocco
Myanmar
Nigeria
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian Authority
Philippines
Qatar
Rwanda
St. Kitts and Nevis
St. Lucia
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Saudi Arabia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Somalia
Sudan
Swaziland
Syria
Taiwan 
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Uganda
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe 

Search strategy: countries death penalty
://www.google.com/search?&q=countries+death+penalty

Most methods of execution currently in use in the United States would
render organs unusable, I think.

The gas chamber and lethal injection leave toxins in the bloodstream,
and electrocution causes cellular damage. Death by firing squad and
hanging (which presumably would leave the body in better condition for
organ donation) are infrequently used in the USA.

Even if the method of execution left the body relatively untouched,
many death row prisoners would be unsuitable donors because of years
of drug and alcohol abuse.

For a cautionary look at the possible social consequences of using
prisoners' bodies as sources of organ transplants, I recommend Larry
Niven's "Known Space" short stories, in which an "organ bank" industry
in the near future harvests organs from convicted felons. The demand
for transplantable organs is considerable, which results in the
citizenry passing legislation which sends lawbreakers to be
disassembled at the organ bank for lesser and lesser crimes, including
trivial traffic violations.