Body Shock: Unsettling the Biosciences through Postconventional Materialities

The focus of this article is the problematic of data in the life sciences with regard to the supposedly singular event of heart transplantation. In mainstream discourse, organ transplantation is seen as a straightforward exchange of body parts in which fatally deteriorating biological elements are replaced by more competent and enduring components. Post-transplant a variety of biological, immunological, and pharmaceutical data are collected and evaluated, with the success of the operation gauged against the clinical recovery of the recipient as determined by those measures. That simple picture fails to attend, however, to issues such as the historico-cultural context of the biomedical procedure, temporality, the phenomenological sense of self, the psycho-social imaginary, and even disregarded biological dimensions such as cellular microchimerism, all of which can deeply unsettle biomedical certainty. Drawing on my own participation in collaborative research, I rethink what counts as data and demonstrate the need to interweave multiple forms of knowledge in a data assemblage that mobilises new insights into the significance of transplantation and concorporeality. </jats:p

Hauntological dimensions of heart transplantation: the onto-epistemologies of deceased donation.

The practice of human organ transplantation studies is shot through with questions concerning the concepts of selfhood and identity that continually reach out towards transmigration, displacement and haunting. In particular, heart transplantation is the site at which the parameters of human life and death are tested to their limits, not simply for the recipient but for the donor too. In conventional biomedicine, the definition and therefore the moment of death is a matter of ongoing and disturbing dispute between two major channels of thought. Should we understand life to end at the point of cessation of cardiac function, or alternatively that of the brainstem? That whole logic is predicated, however, on the familiar binary of life/death that fails to address urgent concerns in three arenas: social-cultural imaginaries, postmodernist philosophy and increasingly exploratory bioscience. If there is always something about death that is uncanny, that exceeds rationalist thought, then we need to queer the concept and ask whether there are more sensitive ways of thinking the process of dying. The very concept of extended life for the recipient is no simple outcome, and the question of whose life has been prolonged is far from clear. My contribution touches on the idea of thinking transplantation in the mode of parasitism but will suggest an alternative Deleuzian way forward

Queering the Social Imaginaries of the Dead

I offer a philosophical examination and feminist queering of the social imaginaries of the dead – with specific reference to recent public disclosures about death in Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes – by looking at the issue of spectrality through the work of Jacques Derrida and others. What does it mean to respond to the dead, who, though temporarily forgotten, return to haunt us not as remembered human beings but as remnants or remainders? The normative distinctions between past and present; past, present and future; between living and non-living; absence and presence; and self and other are all made indistinct when displaced by a non-linear temporality. What differential is in play with respect to those who are grievable (in Judith Butler’s terms) and the others who constitute what Giorgio Agamben calls bare life? The strategy of memorialising the re/discovered dead seems inadequate, and I outline an alternative hauntological ethics, as suggested by Derrida, and ask if there are queer social imaginaries that allow us to live well with the dead not because we give respect, but because death itself has been rethought. I close with some speculations arising from Deleuzian vitalism and Rosi Braidotti’s optimistic claim that ‘death frees us into life’

Preparation and Support of Patients through the Transplant Process: Understanding the Recipients&apos; Perspectives

Preparation for heart transplant commonly includes booklets, instructional videos, personalized teaching sessions, and mentorship. This paper explores heart transplant recipients&apos; thoughts on their preparation and support through the transplant process. Twenty-five interviews were audio-/videotaped capturing voice and body language and transcribed verbatim. Coding addressed language, bodily gesture, volume, and tone in keeping with our visual methodology. Recipients reported that only someone who had a transplant truly understands the experience. As participants face illness and life-altering experiences, maintaining a positive attitude and hope is essential to coping well. Healthcare professionals provide ongoing care and reassurance about recipients&apos; medical status. Mentors, family members, and close friends play vital roles in supporting recipients. Participants reported that only heart transplant recipients understood the experience, the hope, and ultimately the suffering associated with living with another persons&apos; heart. Attention needs to be focused not solely on the use of teaching modalities, but also on the development of innovative support networks. This will promote patient and caregiver engagement in self-management. Enhancing clinicians&apos; knowledge of the existential aspects of transplantation will provide them with a nuanced understanding of the patients&apos; experience, which will ultimately enhance their ability to better prepare and support patients and their caregivers