9 Gift-of-life? The Psychosocial Experiences ... 219understandings of the gift-of-life metaphor relate to their transplanta-
tion experience. Although used interchangeably in the context of trans-
plantation, the terms ‘gift’ and ‘donation’ represent different forms of
giving. While the former initiates a form of social contract that entails
reciprocation, the latter does not (Douglas 1992 ). In this chapter, I
examine reciprocity in the context of organ transplantation, with par-
ticular reference to the concept of gratitude and how it pertains to the
receipt of ‘a gift’ of such magnitude.
I begin the discussion by briefly describing those who participated in
my research, followed by three individual sections in which I discuss the
experience of heart recipients, liver recipients and prospective kidney
recipients, respectively. All participants have undergone what might, on
the surface, appear to be the same experience (i.e. waiting for, and/or
receiving an organ transplant). However, I found their experiences to
be diverse. I did not encounter one, homogenous, group of transplant
recipients/prospective recipients but instead, individuals who spoke
about their experience of transplantation in strikingly different ways.
While divergence was evident across the sample, I found considerable
convergence within the particular organ-groups (i.e. heart, liver and
kidney) and posit that the particular organ being received has distinct
implications for the psychosocial/affective experience of transplantation.
The Research
The study on which this chapter is based was conducted in Western
Australia between 2010 and 2014, with participants recruited from the
transplant units of two large metropolitan hospitals. The study received
institutional ethics clearance from the two hospitals and from the
Murdoch University Human Research Ethics Committee (2009/240,
13 May, 2010). Participants were voluntarily recruited from a list of
patients who had received an organ transplant or were on the waitlist
to receive an organ transplant and were deemed healthy enough to be
interviewed.
Data-gathering extended over a period of 14 months, with the final
analysis based on the semi-structured interviews of 30 organ recipients/
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