How is organ transplantation affecting kin relations in the United States? To answer this question, graduate student Laura Heineman, supervised by Dr. Marcia C. Inhorn, will investigate the interaction of transplantation with the daily lives of adult transplant recipients and their caregivers. This study focuses on three untested assumptions that: 1) transplantation, as a practice, is both founded upon and affecting cultural norms in the U.S.; 2) kin relations, cultivated in the home through activities of giving care, are a major component of transplantation's impact on daily life; 3) the arenas of constraint created by social stratification figure significantly in interactions between transplantation and human relatedness. These assumptions will be explored at a major transplant center in the U.S. Midwest that employs a care model which focuses on the use of family and friends to meet patients' care needs both during and after hospitalization.
The researcher will employ a variety of ethnographic and social science research methods, including semistructured, unstructured, genealogical, and life history interviews; participant observation; fieldnote and visual documentation; and review of health policy documents. She builds upon recent kinship theory, which examines multiple forms of relatedness beyond bio-genetic relations. Comparisons will include: 1) patients and caregivers who are related by "blood," marriage, or adoption, versus those who are "kin-like," but not related in these ways (to understand what constitutes "relatedness") and 2) the experiences of transplantation in the hospital, versus those of transplant caregiving in the home (to ascertain the role of the home in kinship and transplant care). These data will be evaluated in light of constraints faced throughout the transplant process.
The research is important because it will be useful for improving health policy, outcomes for transplant patients (and others with serious, long-term illness), support for caregivers, and communication between medical professionals and patient populations. At a time when alternative forms of relatedness are highly contested (e.g., same-sex marriage and family-making via new reproductive technologies), studies such as this are crucial to understand the mechanisms by which kin relations are created, solidified, questioned, or changed. The research also will contribute significantly to the education of a social scientist.
