Shedding the Cocoon: A "Mortal Embodiment" Perspective of Organ Donation in Supporting and Enhancing Life

Ai-Ling, Lai, Dermody, Janine ORCID: 0000-0002-0399-398X and Hanmer-Lloyd, Stuart (2007) Shedding the Cocoon: A "Mortal Embodiment" Perspective of Organ Donation in Supporting and Enhancing Life. In: Advances in Consumer Research. Association for Consumer Research, Duluth, MN, pp. 167-174. ISBN 9780915552597

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Abstract

This paper explores how potential female donors in the UK negotiate their ambivalent perceptions of cadaveric organ donation from a `mortal embodiment' perspective. Specifically, we explore how the decision to dispossess body parts in the event of death challenges the notion of the body as the marker and annihilation of self under the contours of late modernity. Using a hermeneutic approach, multiple active interviews have been conducted with potential female donors, aged 21-30 who claim to harbour ambivalent perceptions towards organ donation. Through our 'rich and thick data' we reveal how potential donors actively rework socio-cultural constructs of the body by enacting various interpretive repertoires to make sense of their embodied self. We propose that the current organ donation promotional message of the "gift-of- life" should take into account the embodied self as an ongoing project of transitions and transformation that transcend biological death. Our paper therefore supports the research programs proposed by scholars of 'Consumer Culture Theory' and contributes to the recent call for 'Transformative Consumer Research'.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Donation of organs, tissues, etc.Death- Psychological aspects, Organ donors, Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc., Human body
Related URLs:	Publisher
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General) R Medicine > RD Surgery
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Business, Computing and Social Sciences
Research Priority Areas:	Applied Business & Technology
Depositing User:	Susan Turner
Date Deposited:	31 Oct 2014 15:34
Last Modified:	01 Aug 2023 12:10
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/1027

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