Lexington Books
Pages: 202
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-1-4985-1566-5 • Hardback • April 2015 • $121.00 • (£93.00)
978-1-4985-1568-9 • Paperback • October 2019 • $50.99 • (£39.00)
978-1-4985-1567-2 • eBook • April 2015 • $48.00 • (£37.00)
Maria-Keiko Yasuoka is a visiting researcher at the Hokkaido University School of Medicine in Japan.
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1Narratives of Transplant Surgeons and Coordinators
Chapter 2Narratives of Recipients
Chapter 3Narratives of Donor Families
Chapter 4The Buds of Interrelationships among Concerned Parties
Chapter 5Transforming Concepts of Life
ConclusionRebirthable Life
AfterwordMy Father’s Funeral in Japan, August 2014
AppendixJapanese Organ Transplantation Law
Bibliography
About the Author
Organ Donation in Japan offers an accessible first attempt of understanding the complexities surrounding organ donation. Building from this book, scholars can expand accounts, refine meanings and increase capacity in a much-needed area.
— Centre for Medical Humanities
Yasuoka’s thoughtful study traces the bumpy road to successful organ transplantation in Japan, where cadaveric (brain dead) donation, though legal, has continued to generate widespread suspicion and resistance for over three decades. An engrossing and accessible account, this work carefully probes professional and lay parties’ personal narratives, an approach that offers new insights into this persistent medical conundrum.
— Lesley A. Sharp, Barnard College; Columbia University
Not since the 2001 publication of Margaret Lock’s Twice Dead have we been able to follow the emerging story of organ transplantation in Japan. Japanese medical anthropologist Maria Yasuoka thus offers us a timely and sensitive ethnographic portrayal of the hopes, realities, and ongoing challenges faced by Japanese transplant surgeons, organ recipients, and donor families. Foregrounding the narratives of these various parties, Organ Donation in Japan represents a major contribution to medical anthropology, bioethics, and Asian studies.
— Marcia Inhorn, Yale University
Japanese medical systems have been reluctant to procure organs from brain-dead donors whose hearts continue to beat with the aid of ventilators. Yasuoka’s study provides a fascinating account of the stories of the few Japanese donor families and organ recipients, as well as of the transplant surgeons, and coordinators who take part in this controversial practice. Yasuoka’s writing is sensitive to an emerging medical field that has been racked with public debate, scandal, malpractice, medical mistrust, organ tourism, tragic and sudden deaths, as well as moments of intense generosity and sacrifice moved by the promise of saving lives.
— Sherine Hamdy, Brown University