9 Gift-of-life? The Psychosocial Experiences ... 233recipients might site and make meaning of their transplant experience
(see also Zeiler 2014 ).
The narratives of transplant recipients and prospective recipients are
an important source of information about the transplant experience.
There is wisdom inherent in patients’ illness stories, and access to this
wisdom leads to a more complete understanding of the illness experi-
ence. While the heart recipients in my research endorsed the under-
standing of transplantation as the gift-of-life, many of the liver recipients
and prospective kidney recipients did not. A generic (gift-of-life) model
of transplantation is rigid and does not allow for the recognition,
acknowledgement and deep understanding of the realities of transplanta-
tion for those within the individual (i.e. heart, liver, kidney) groups.
Living in defiance of death, life for transplant recipients and prospec-
tive recipients is forever caste in the shadow of this life-saving biotech-
nology. New, dynamic, models of care are needed for chronic illness,
particularly those involving biotechnologies where sense of self and
being-in-the-world are compromised. These new models must pay heed
to the situatedness and contingencies of lives, in order to best meet the
needs of those requiring treatment. In reference to bioethical discourse
and practice, Walker ( 2009 : 3) reminds us that: ‘societal conversations
are not open circuits in which all have a chance to be heard under con-
ditions of comparable respect and credibility’. We can learn much about
illness, treatment and the consequences of both, from the ill themselves.
In the realm of transplantation, the stories of transplant recipients and
prospective recipients reveal much about the intersection of individual
lives, biomedical technologies and cultural discourses. The transplant
community and all those invested in understanding and caring for those
with end-stage organ disease would be well served by listening to them.
References
Bayhakki, B. & Hatthakit, U. (2012). Lived experiences of patients on hemo-
dialysis: A meta-synthesis. Nephrology Nursing Journal, 39, 295–304.
Billington, E., Simpson, J., Unwin, J., Bray, D., & Giles, D. (2008). Does
hope predict adjustment to end-stage renal failure and consequent dialysis?
British Journal of Health Psychology, 13, 683–699.
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