Abstract
A death radically rearranges kinship, debt, obligation, and responsibility, and it also triggers prescribed routines for mourning and material disposal of the corpse. It is into this complex and fraught unfolding of events that the rhetorics of corporeal
Highlights
A death radically rearranges kinship, debt, obligation, and responsibility, and it triggers prescribed routines for mourning and material disposal of the corpse
There will be mourning and remembrance in preparation for the funeral that will follow. As part of these preparations a phone call is made to the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society (SLEDS) in the island’s capital city, Colombo, to inform them of the death
The establishment of the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society is attributed to the work and inspiration of one man: Dr Hudson Silva
Summary
The concept of dāne or meritorious giving provides the primary framework within which the act of cadaveric donation can be made sense of (cf. Copeman 2011; Heim 2004; Parry 1986). In the Buddhist literary tradition and in the Jātaka stories there are frequent examples of bodhisattvas giving parts of their bodies as offerings to others in what appear to be extreme ascetic, self-denying, and suicidal acts. These are known as dāna upa paramitā and signify the perfection of giving. Eye donation is promulgated by representatives of SLEDS as an act of benevolent social service (sēvaya) aimed at relieving the suffering of others and thereby improving the pool of human happiness in the here and These acts are felt to be good for society and connect with a strong ethic of working to improve health, assist doctors, help meet the demand for transplantable tissue, and reduce the suffering of others through charitable acts. Extending this theme I turn to other aspects of the worldliness of donation and its relation to the vicissitudes of the nation state
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