Organ Donation Research Paper

Introduction:
Organ transplantation is a relatively new field of interest in medicine and it is only over the past century that many breakthroughs in organ transplantation have been made (). Organ transplantation has enabled people who have been diagnosed with organ failure and have an increasingly degenerating bodily component (organ) to regain the functionality of their body by having another person’s organ implanted into them (Waldby C. 2002. Page 239), offering the potential to enhance and save a life (Haddow G. 2005, pg 92). This incorporation of an outer body component into the organ receiver’s body is not simply a biomedical issue, involving biological factors and medical procedures performed in an often surgical fashion, but also a

Organ transplantation also calls for the incorporation of the embodiment theory as this plays a large role in the social, physiological, phenomenological and clinical references of the body as perceived by the receiving patient, donor and other

2005. Pages 96-97). It is very important to note how the individual perceives their body, in terms of how their spiritual and physical bodies are interconnected. This involves identifying what the patients, both donor and recipient, believe to be their specific “social-structuration” in theories that have been argued to reflect the corporeal body where the stress on embodiment is placed on actual lived experiences (Haddow G. 2005. Page 96). These experiences are interpreted by the individual and cause that person to obtain a certain phenomenological perspective of themselves and their body. A person will therefore also deduce certain perceptions of their body, whether they feel as if their body is an extension of themselves, therefore they are their body, or whether they feel that they have a body that might not necessarily be entirely theirs, as they merely “loan” it during their lifetime (Haddow G. 2005. Page 96). It is essential to determine which type of phenomenology a person possesses as in order for the health care professional to either encourage them to donate an organ or enable a person to adapt to the new organ, the practitioner needs to have the background material to respond adequately to the patient