Patterning the geographies of organ transplantation: corporeality, generosity and justice

publication-status: PublishedThis is the author's post-print version of an article published in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 2006, Vol. 31, Issue 3 pp. 257 – 271 Copyright © 2006 Institute of British Geographers / Royal Geographical Society. The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.comOrgan transplantation is now an established treatment for patients with end-stage organ failure, yet there are spatial inequalities in access to this procedure. This paper explores the uneven geographies of kidney transplantation in London, arguing that inequalities in access to organ transplantation are created through interlocking spatialities of corporeal difference, enacted through global movements of populations, national organ transplantation protocols and the internal immunological spaces of the body. The combination of these processes, operating at different scales, has produced a distinctive configuration in the embodiment of risk in relation to kidney transplants, particularly born by London's Black and Asian communities. Two ethical dimensions to this geography of organ transplantation are explored here: the ethical responsiveness to others shaping the generous practices of organ donation, and the medical practices categorizing difference through techniques of blood typing, tissue matching and the spatial organization of organ transplantation. In concluding, I argue both are critical to understanding the links between ethics and justice in the geographies of organ exchange in London. Further, I suggest geography is central to political debate about the exchange of biological material elsewhere, for it is only through tracing the intersection of ethical, corporeal and technological practices in situ that we can fully reflect on questions of justice within the developing bioeconomy

Liver transplant audit 1985-1992

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:5280.518(1985/1992) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Transplant update End of August 1999

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:5815.3675(199) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Enhancing the health profession's role in requesting transplant organs

The shortfall in organs for transplant continues in the UK. To address this problem, methods of organ procurement are continuously widening with the recent development of protocols in elective ventilation and non-heart beating donors. Until recently, the nurse's role in the success of organ procurement was largely limited to those working in intensive care units involved in cadaveric transplant and community-based nurses working with patients on kidney dialysis who may become involved with live related transplant. Involvement in organ procurement has now extended to nurses working in general wards and accident and emergency centres. It is imperative that health professionals are aware of the large numbers of patients for whom donors have not been found. They need to be aware of the possible reasons which deter relatives from giving consent for potential donors and prevent relatives themselves from becoming potential live donors. Those who are involved in the organ request process need to be alerted to the factors that affect the decision to give consent. It is hoped that these efforts will help to reduce the drastic shortage of available organs for transplant in the UK