The Jigsaw Man

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For the 1983 film see The Jigsaw Man (film)

"The Jigsaw Man" is a short story in the Known Space universe by Larry Niven. It shows a way in which good intentions can lead to disastrous consequences for society. In the story, criminals convicted of capital offenses are forced to donate all of their organs to medicine, so that their body parts can be used to save lives and thus repay society for their crimes. However, high demand for organs has inspired lawmakers to lower the bar for execution. The protagonist of the story, certain that he will be convicted of a capital crime, but feeling that the punishment is unfair, escapes from prison and decides to do something really worth dying for. He vandalises the organ-harvesting facility, destroying a large amount of equipment and harvested organs - but the sting in the tail of the story is that when he is recaptured and brought to trial, this crime does not even appear on the charge sheet, as the prosecution are already confident of securing a conviction on his original offence: repeated red-light violations.

The story was first published in Harlan Ellison's anthology Dangerous Visions, and is included in Niven's collections All the Myriad Ways and Tales of Known Space.