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Desperately seeking "normal": the promise and perils of living with kidney transplantation

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  • Crowley-Matoka, Megan

Abstract

Organ transplantation offers a dramatic example of the promises for health held out by biomedicine--and thus, a productive vantage point from which to interrogate those promises. Drawing on ethnographic research on kidney transplantation in Guadalajara, Mexico, this article examines the version of "health" offered to patients through transplantation. The paper explores patients' transplant trajectories as they move from learning to desire a transplant to actually receiving one and living with it over the long term, all within particular structuring sociocultural and political economic conditions. The article analyzes how transplanted patients are forced to come to terms with the contingent states of "health" and "normality" wrought by transplantation as they carve out an existence in the persistently liminal spaces between the roles of "sick" and "healthy," dependent patient and fully contributing family member.

Suggested Citation

  • Crowley-Matoka, Megan, 2005. "Desperately seeking "normal": the promise and perils of living with kidney transplantation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 821-831, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:61:y:2005:i:4:p:821-831
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    Cited by:

    1. Saunders, Benjamin & Bartlam, Bernadette & Artus, Majid & Konstantinou, Kika, 2018. "Biographical suspension and liminality of Self in accounts of severe sciatica," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 28-36.
    2. Roberti, Javier & Alonso, Juan Pedro & Blas, Leandro & May, Carl, 2022. "How do social and economic vulnerabilities shape the work of participating in care? Everyday experiences of people living with kidney failure in Argentina," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    3. Kierans, Ciara, 2011. "Anthropology, organ transplantation and the immune system: Resituating commodity and gift exchange," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(10), pages 1469-1476.
    4. Coventry, Peter A. & Dickens, Chris & Todd, Chris, 2014. "How does mental–physical multimorbidity express itself in lived time and space? A phenomenological analysis of encounters with depression and chronic physical illness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 108-118.
    5. Standing, Holly C. & Rapley, Tim & MacGowan, Guy A. & Exley, Catherine, 2017. "‘Being’ a ventricular assist device recipient: A liminal existence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 141-148.

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    Keywords

    Transplantation Mexico Liminality;

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