Paper short abstract:

This paper—based on two decades of anthropological field research in the realm of human organ transfer in the U.S.—examines the material culture of professional versus personal donor memorials through the themes of controversy, censorship, and subversion.

Paper long abstract:

Memorials to deceased organ donors in the U.S. assume a range of forms, from formal commemorative gardens, sculptures, and murals mounted by professional organizations to altars, quilts, specialized scrapbooks, and memory boxes carefully assembled or pieced together by surviving kin. The public face of organ transfer in the U.S. strikes a delicate balance between the celebratory and respectful, where organ donors are lauded as stars and heroes who, in death, have offered selfless "gifts of life" to others in need. Associated events, public relations materials, and large-scale memorials are marked by undetailed and carefully crafted depictions and descriptions of donors' deaths, accounts that are always overshadowed by the foregrounding of organ recipients' success stories post-transplant. In contrast, donor kin depict and tell very different sorts of stories, unflinchingly offering raw and detailed accounts of death and loss. Such efforts can incite censorship, however, from professionals, who fear that emotional stories, alongside references to violent deaths, could quickly undermine precarious efforts to win public support through increased organ donations. This paper—which draws on data accumulated over the course of two decades of anthropological field research on organ transfer in the U.S.—will examine the material culture of professional and personal donor memorials through the themes of controversy, censorship, and subversion.