Paper short abstract:

I intend to discuss how death appears in the contemporary discourse of organ transfer in Kerala, a state in southern part of India. I address this question through the case study of an organization called Suvartha and by reading some of the newspaper reports on cadaveric organ donation.

Paper long abstract:

Following Lesley A. Sharp’s idea of organ transfer as signifying both organ donation and transplantation, I intend to discuss how death appears in the contemporary discourse of organ transfer in Kerala, a state in southern part of India. I address this question through the case study of an organization called Suvartha, which specializes in mobilizing people to generate transplant fund, and by reading some of the newspaper reports on cadaveric organ donation. This organization believes that ‘No one should die, because of lack of money for treatment’ and uses media networks effectively for its fundraising campaign. Meanwhile, the news reports on cadaveric organ donation represent the death of the brain-dead donor as a life-saving event. In both cases, it has to be noted that the figure of ‘impending death’ is constantly used in the entire discourse. Also, in the attempt to promote the cause of organ donation, these developments portray the power of medicine and associated technological innovations to bring back someone from the verge of death. At the same time, when the actual death of the transplant patient happens due to various reasons, the above theme momentarily disappears from the whole discourse on organ transfer. Thus, in this paper, I aim to show that the topic of death circulates in the public discourse of organ transfer only as a spectre, but not as a reality.