The Notion of the Gift in the Donation of Body Tissues

Shaw, Rod

doi:10.5153/sro.1832

Cited by 31 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(21 reference statements)

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“…Gamete donors similarly express nuanced and complex views about the meaning of their ‘gift’. Interviews with egg donors have found they often report feelings of connection with their recipients, frequently articulated in relation to the gift they have given (Konrad , Shaw , , Van Parys et al . ).…”

Section: The Social Significance Of Giftsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxic money or paid altruism: the meaning of payments for identity‐release gamete donors

Gilman

2018

Sociology Health & Illness

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Public discourses commonly frame gamete, organ and other forms of bodily donation as altruistic 'gifts'. However, despite on-going debates about the ethics of payments to donors, few studies have examined the views of donors themselves regarding the meaning of payments and their compatibility (or not) with understandings of these practices as gifts. This article addresses this issue, analysing 24 in-depth interviews with UK identity-release gamete donors. It was crucial to all participants that their donation be viewed as fundamentally other-oriented, motivated by the desire to help others. However, whilst egg donors often accommodated payment within this narrative, male participants explained that any money would taint the gift they had given. I argue that sperm donors faced particular challenges to incorporating payment within a gift narrative for two key reasons: first, sperm donors relied on a discourse of 'pure altruism', including absolute opposition between gifts and market exchange, in order to present their donation as other-oriented. In contrast, egg donors were also able to mobilise a discourse of relational giving to present their donations as a personal gift. Second, according to a continued stereotype of sperm donors as financially motivated students, their payments have already been culturally earmarked as side-line earnings.

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Section: The Social Significance Of Giftsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxic money or paid altruism: the meaning of payments for identity‐release gamete donors

Gilman

2018

Sociology Health & Illness

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“…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.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…To a great degree, philanthropic motivation is a function of these distinctions. For example, the motivations for blood versus organ donations vary in light of, among other reasons, the fact that blood is a replenished body fluid, donated by the blood owner, and organs are generally nonreplaceable, and typically donated by a dead person's loved ones (Shaw, ). Thus, in the context of bodily gifting, understanding the motivations to donate requires an understanding of the nature of the particular bodily gift.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Oreg

Appe

2020

Social Science Quarterly

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Objective This article draws on the literature of bodily gifting, the motivations for milk donation, and donor identity to explore human milk donation in the context of nonprofit milk banks. We ask: What are the characteristics of the milk donor identity? Methods We qualitatively analyze written testimonials and images produced by human milk donors during the time of their milk donation. Results We found that milk donors comprised complex identities: the identity of a mother, of a woman, sometimes a recipient, and often including the donor's professional identity. Conclusion Given the increasing demand for human milk donations, studying the unique aspects of this donation is important. The complexity of milk donor identity is captured in the fluidity of human milk donation itself, donors and recipients with this bodily gifting include the babies, mothers, and even entire families.

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“…The very word ‘donation’ exemplifies this emphasis on altruism – implying a one‐way philanthropic act (see ‘the language of donation’ below). The language of gift has been actively promoted by government and health agencies to secure human tissue for various uses (Shaw , Tutton ). On the other hand, concerns about exploitation of donated material have led to a body of socio‐ethical literature promoting personal property rights over biosamples, exemplified by the polemical titles of Andrews and Nelkin's () Body Bazaar: the market for human tissues in the biotechnology age and Scheper‐Hughes's () ‘Bodies for sale – whole or in parts’.…”

Section: Health Research ‘Donations’mentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Boylan

Locock

Machin

2018

Sociology Health & Illness

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The aim of this paper is to examine the meaning of the concept of donation in health research. Drawing on a set of narrative interviews with people invited to donate biosamples for research and a range of other studies, we identify several conceptual themes that speak to the complexity of the current landscape of critical thinking about donation. These conceptual themes are: the language of 'donation'; a hierarchy of biosamples; alternative informational value; narratives as donation; coincidental donation, convenience and degree of invasiveness; and rights, consent and benefits of research participation. We call for a reconceptualisation of research donation to encompass not only the numerous types of sample readily classed as donations, but also other types of data and contributions, including narrative interviews, psychometric data, patient-reported outcome measures, record-linkage, and time and effort. We argue for the development of a pluralist sociology of research donations, and suggest that a 'sociology of research contributions' might better capture this complexity.

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The Notion of the Gift in the Donation of Body Tissues

Cited by 31 publications

References 28 publications

Toxic money or paid altruism: the meaning of payments for identity‐release gamete donors

Toxic money or paid altruism: the meaning of payments for identity‐release gamete donors

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

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

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