Thanking and reciprocating under the New Zealand organ donation system

Abstract

Organ donation and transplantation has been extensively addressed in the biomedical and bioethics literature in relation to debates around organ allocation and procurement strategies, and concerns about consent, coercion and commodification. This article addresses the topic sociologically, drawing on data from face-to-face in-depth interviews undertaken between 2008 and 2010 with organ and tissue recipients, anonymous altruistic donors and donor family members to discuss questions of reciprocity and intercorporeality that arise in the course of tissue exchange. In particular, the article examines the place of anonymity protocol for organ donors and transplantation recipients in New Zealand and their responses to conventions and scripts surrounding this rule. The article concludes by calling for discussion to re-examine anonymity protocol and rituals around organ donation and transplantation, citing lessons from gamete donation policies and recent law in New Zealand as productive for thinking through matters of personhood and identity relating to organ transfer.