Expanding the conceptual toolkit of organ gifting

Abstract

In jurisdictions where the sale of body tissue and organs is illegal, organ transplantation is often spoken of as a gift of life. In the social sciences and bioethics this concept has been subject to critique over the course of the last two decades for failing to reflect the complexities of organ and tissue exchange. I suggest that a new ethical model of organ donation and transplantation is needed to capture the range of experiences in this domain. The proposed model is both analytical and empirically oriented, and draws on research findings linking a series of qualitative sociological studies undertaken in New Zealand between 2007 and 2013. The studies were based on document analysis, field notes and 127 semi-structured in-depth interviews with people from different cultural and constituent groups directly involved in organ transfer processes. The aim of the article is to contribute to sociological knowledge about organ exchange and to expand the conceptual toolkit of organ donation to include the unconditional gift, the gift relation, gift exchange, body project, and body work. The rationale for the proposed model is to provide an explanatory framework for organ donors and transplant recipients and to assist the development of ethical guidelines and health policy discourse.

“Ain't No Hood Like Motherhood”: The Complexity of Human Milk Donor Identity

“…Mauss’s research about the meanings of gifts significantly contributed to the early development of research about prosocial behavior and influenced researchers from a variety of disciplines, including those in anthropology, social psychology, developmental psychology, and economics (Shaw, ; see also Jones, ). Scholars frame the donation of organs, body fluids, and tissues as a Maussian gift by elaborating on the social bonds that are created between donors and recipients (Shaw, ). Some connections that donors and recipients of bodily gifts express are symbolic, in particular of an embodied experience as parts of the donor's body keep living within the recipients (Shaw, ).…”

“…The donation of organs, human tissue, and bodily fluids has been termed “bodily gifting” (Titmus, ; Shaw, , ). Reference to donations from one's body as a gift draws attention to the uniqueness of this form of giving.…”

‘Doing good by proxy’: human‐animal kinship and the ‘donation’ of canine blood

“…, Moorlock et al . , Shaw ), bone marrow donation (Garcia et al . ) and the donation of tissues to biobanks (Locock and Boylan ), to the point where some have concluded that the term ‘gift’ offers little utility in representing donors’ views and its use should be discouraged (Locock and Boylan ).…”

From waste product to blood, brains and narratives: developing a pluralist sociology of contributions to health research

“…While this article is intended to be primarily reflective, we feel it is important to ground any such reflection in the views of real people, rather than hypothetical ethical or theoretical considerations which may hold little meaning or relevance for research participants. In this we follow Shaw's (: 952–3) methodological approach, aiming to ‘expand the conceptual toolkit’ in a way that is ‘both analytical and empirically oriented, drawing on research that links a series of qualitative sociological studies’. Our analysis is primarily what Heaton (: 38) defines as ‘supra‐analysis’, secondary analysis which ‘transcends the focus of the primary study … examining new empirical, theoretical or methodological questions’.…”