TY - BOOK

T1 - Orchestrating an Exceptional Death

T2 - Donor Family Experiences and Organ Donation in Denmark

AU - Jensen, Anja Marie Bornø

PY - 2011/9/22

Y1 - 2011/9/22

N2 - This Ph.D. thesis explores the experiences of Danish donor families andthe context of organ donation in Denmark. Based on comprehensiveethnographic studies at Danish hospitals and interviews with healthcare professionals and donor families, readers are invited on a journeyinto the complex processes of facing brain death and deciding aboutorgan donation.This study suggests that organ donation should be understood asa ‘strange figure’ challenging traditions and attitudes regarding theboundaries between life and death and the practices surrounding deadhuman bodies. Simultaneously, organ donation can be comforting andfurthermore enable some families to make sense of a sudden tragic death.Throughout the thesis, the concept of ‘orchestration’ serves as the overalltheoretical framework to understand how families, hospital staff and,on a larger scale, Danish society attempt to perform, reinterpret andtranslate death and organ donation into something culturally acceptableand sense making.With chapters focusing analytically on the performance of trust, thetransformative practices of hope, the aesthetization of ambiguous bodies,the sociality of exchangeable organs and the organ donation stories,the complexity of the donor family experiences and organ donation inDenmark is unfolded.

AB - This Ph.D. thesis explores the experiences of Danish donor families andthe context of organ donation in Denmark. Based on comprehensiveethnographic studies at Danish hospitals and interviews with healthcare professionals and donor families, readers are invited on a journeyinto the complex processes of facing brain death and deciding aboutorgan donation.This study suggests that organ donation should be understood asa ‘strange figure’ challenging traditions and attitudes regarding theboundaries between life and death and the practices surrounding deadhuman bodies. Simultaneously, organ donation can be comforting andfurthermore enable some families to make sense of a sudden tragic death.Throughout the thesis, the concept of ‘orchestration’ serves as the overalltheoretical framework to understand how families, hospital staff and,on a larger scale, Danish society attempt to perform, reinterpret andtranslate death and organ donation into something culturally acceptableand sense making.With chapters focusing analytically on the performance of trust, thetransformative practices of hope, the aesthetization of ambiguous bodies,the sociality of exchangeable organs and the organ donation stories,the complexity of the donor family experiences and organ donation inDenmark is unfolded.

M3 - Ph.D. thesis

SN - 9788771131154

T3 - Ph.D. Series

BT - Orchestrating an Exceptional Death

PB - Institut for Antropologi

CY - Kbh.

ER -