Immortal Organs: Spirituality in the Resurrected Lives of Organ Transplant Recipients

Abstract

At the heart of the scholarly critique of organ transplant is an unshakeable conviction that the zeal for transplantation stems from a misguided endeavour to resist death indefinitely and unnaturally. Based on ethnographic research with recipients about the religious or spiritual import of their transplant, this article argues that the immortality organ recipients seek is not a simple hunger to live longer but a complex rendering of eternal life founded on embodied experiences of illness and transplant and the social networks these experiences give rise to. Post modern medicine does not solve the problem of death, but it does contribute to new understandings of life after death. / MACDONALD

Bioethical considerations

“…Unlike other mothers, recipient mothers, even those who experience above-average graft survival rates, will likely live with an awareness of what many recipient accounts describe as a "fragile" hold on life [24,34]. For some, this awareness produces an intensified appreciation for life and increased motivation to live; it can enable women to make sense of organ failure and provide them motivation to comply with the transplant regime [27,35,36].…”

“…These positive insights, however, compete with the angst produced by an uncertain future and its potential effect on loved ones [6,34]. For example, transplanted mothers cope with guilt over the lack of energy to fulfill household responsibilities, conflict over changing roles and routines, and the potential depletion of financial resources [35e37].…”

Beyond Death: Inheriting the Past and Giving to the Future, Transmitting the Legacy of One's Self

“…What is the meaning of life is a question debated by philosophers and theologians. The importance of meaning in the human existence is illustrated in older women (Moreman, 2004(Moreman, -2005, organ transplant recipients (MacDonald, 2006), and people in palliative care (Bourgeois & Johnson, 2004) to mention just a few groups that have be explicitly explored. Life-changing events often trigger a search for meaning (Balk, 1999;Becker, 1973;Doka, 1993;Marrone, 1999).…”