Orchestrating Death: Organ Donation in Denmark and the USA
Navn på bevillingshaver
Anja Marie Bornø Jensen
Institution
University of Copenhagen
Beløb
DKK 661,992
År
2019
Bevillingstype
Monograph Fellowships
Hvad?
My book project is a comparative study of organ donation and transplantation in Denmark and the USA. Based on several years of anthropological field studies and interviews, I explore the experiences of donor families, organ recipients, medical staffs and policy makers. The book will also discuss significant national differences in organizing and communicating organ donation. The chapters of the book will deal with how organ donors, donor families and organ recipients are cared for in the clinic, how donation and transplant staffs handle the challenges of transplantation, and how policymakers and organizations establish public legitimacy using powerful donation narratives, such as for example “transplant heroes” and “gift of life”.
Hvorfor?
No matter how much innovative medical technology develops, organ transplantation always depends on the willingness and dedication of the people taking part in donation cases. This book tells the stories of those people: The families who have lost a loved one: the intensive care staff handling organ donors: the organ recipients getting a new body part: the transplant staff caring for patients, and the policy makers developing and communicating organ donation. Considering the difficulty in gaining access to these medical domains and personal stories, the empirical data material of this book is unique in its potential and scope. Comparing Denmark and the USA, this anthropological book will contribute with new insights to the existing literature and to the international transplant community.
Hvordan?
I will spend the 12 months writing the different chapters of the book and submitting the manuscript to an international publisher. Along the way, I will use my international network within academia and the transplant community to comment on my drafts to ensure the highest possible quality of the book. This grant provides a rare and much welcomed opportunity to focus solely on writing, and I plan to visit other research environments in order to gain inspiration and good advice on the art of writing from authors and researchers I admire. Thereby I will hopefully be able to produce a book of great significance and relevance that will be useful for an academic audience, for actors within transplantation and also for the general public.