Transplantation: Living organ donation has become a routine medical procedure. Many German public campaigns for organ donation promote reciprocity as a relevant moral principle. In such campains organ donation is framed as a present or by reciprocity. Dr. Sabine Wöhlke (University Medical Center Göttingen/Germany) analyzed the question, how these designations and public appeals can be seen as useful to understand the experience and motivation of affected patients and potential donors. The study appeared in the new scientific book "Public Engagement in Organ Donation and Transplantation".
Sabine Woehlke presents a socio-empirical study which consisted of 27 interviews and six group discussions of German recipients and donors of living kidneys.
The interviews revealed a reciprocal exchange relationship between donor and recipiental-ready exists. While still labeled as voluntary decision for or against a living donation, an obligation according to the principle of exchange was often already implied in both sides. The interviews showed that they mainly use the vocabulary of "giving a gift".
Sabine Wöhlke found "many hints that the polarisation and advertisement rhetoric that oscillates between ´an act of humanity´ and ´absolute freedom´ in public campains is problematic. When public campaigns aim at motivating people to donate without differentiating between deceased and living, then moral concepts such as reciprocity and social bonds are perhaps more appropriate."
The analysis demonstrates that "the term donation - as used in the context of post-mortem and living donation - obscures the complex pro-social character of these acts. Indeed, it follows many other priciples, such as reciprocity and concepts of gift-countergift exchange, albeit implicitly and obliquely. Thus, regarding the need to further public acceptance, it might be important to develop and implement national schemes which promote ideational reciprocity ..."
Public Engagement in Organ Donation and Transplantation (from the ELPAT Public Issues Working Group)
Randhawa, Gurch; Schicktanz, Silke (Eds.)
