Organ Transplantation as a Transformative Experience: Anthropological Insights into the Restructuring of the Self

Abstract

Transplantation represents in the popular mind the pinnacle of biomedical knowledge and skill. Its feasibility depends upon the management of conflicting cultural values surrounding death and dying, where diverse parties consider bodies and their parts to be personal property, sacred entities, or offerings to the common good. Specifically within the specialized transplant community, viable organs are scarce, socially valuable resources. The ideology that guides transplant professionals, however, is rife with contradictions: close inspection reveals unease over definitions of death and rights to body parts. Ideological disjunction arises from the competing needs to personalize and to objectify organs and bodies. Organ recipients struggle with these contradictory messages as they rebuild their sense of self and self-worth following transplantation. This transformative process is explored by analyzing professional writings and data generated from ethnographic research in the United States. The study ends by examining transformed identity as fictionalized and extended biography.

Constructing embodied identity in a ‘new’ ageing population: A qualitative study of the pioneer cohort of childhood liver transplant recipients in the UK

“…Three of the most noteworthy changes have been the expansion of medical activity through medical innovation in a whole variety of new areas such as childhood organ transplantation; the subsequent possibility of survival from historically fatal conditions; and the transformation of the idea of identity, a concept that has both a long history and a greatly increased significance in contemporary societies (Giddens 1991;Sharp 1995;Moran 2015). Together, these changes have led to the emergence of many new groups of individuals defined or defining themselves through their bodily experiences, diagnosis, and treatment, and present new and ongoing challenges for identity as these individuals grow older.…”

“…In the context of organ transplantation anthropologists have offered useful perspectives for thinking specifically about the ways that receiving a donor organ might shape personal identity. For example, a transplant recipient may adopt new attitudes, behaviours, or imagined characteristics of the donor through believing that they have been acquired through the donor's organ (Sharp 1995;Crowley-Matoka and Lock 2006).…”

“…Transplant recipients may also personalise their transplanted organs and weave these understandings into their perceptions of owners or inhabitants of a newly-assembled body (Sharp 1995).…”

“…This is especially so for transplant recipients who work post-surgery to redefine and restructure their identities in public arenas; here transplantation creates new or complicates existing social relationships that affect how organ recipients assess their own worth (Sharp 1995). However, numerous factors can undermine recipients' attempts to redefine themselves as 'healthy' (Sharp 1995).…”

“…This is especially so for transplant recipients who work post-surgery to redefine and restructure their identities in public arenas; here transplantation creates new or complicates existing social relationships that affect how organ recipients assess their own worth (Sharp 1995). However, numerous factors can undermine recipients' attempts to redefine themselves as 'healthy' (Sharp 1995). For those with an ongoing health impairment, both the underlying condition and its treatment influence the degree of control possible over personal information and to what extent certain narratives or identities can be revealed or kept hidden.…”