Patientens kropp

Känslor, makt och reciprocitet i transplantationsvärlden

Authors

• Markus Idvall Lunds universitet

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37447/bk.98447

Keywords:

Patient body, transplantation, reciprocity, emotions

Abstract

The Body of the Patient Emotions, power and reciprocity in the world of transplantation   Markus Idvall   Transplantation has been a part of human culture and imagination over centuries. In modern times, from the mid-20th century on, transplantation of solid organs and cells has become part of clinical practice. In this article, I focus on field studies with 1) individuals who have donated a kidney to a relative (living donors) and 2) individuals who have received a kidney from a deceased donor. Transplantation is problematized as a form of inter-corporality and a performative meeting between a recipient, a donor and medical intermediaries in the shape of doctors and nurses. By focusing on the body of the patient we learn about the aspects of emotions, power, and reciprocity in which the transplantation takes place. The empirical discussion starts with a phenomenological approach towards what it means to have a transplant. In the narrative of one of the interview subjects a specific landscape – a forest – appears as a symbol for the individual body’s transformation or even “rebirth”. The embodiment of the forest signifies both hope and an uncertain future for the individual. In a similar way, individuals who donate one of their kidneys to a relative, also incorporate the patient’s room in the hospital as being a space representing the pain which an individual living donor experiences when temporarily becoming a patient. In the second part of the article, a bio-political, power-related perspective is included in the analysis. The medical gaze that identifies donors and recipients is discussed in relation to how the human body and body-parts become a form of a national resource in the transplant context. Donor pools and waiting lists for transplants are in this respect tools for realizing a transplant industry on a national and global basis. At the end of the article, reciprocity is introduced as an analytical perspective. By distinguishing the transplant as a gift, emotions, power relations and the multifaceted body of the patient can be seen as inter-connected.