10 Organ Donation Practices and End-of-life Care ... 255lifts to avoid public areas. Once the tūpāpaku has been removed from
the room, further karakia will be said before the room is cleaned
(Waitematā District Health Board 2003 ). The deceased is usually pre-
pared by an undertaker, often with the whanau present, before proceed-
ing to the Marae (Nikora et al. 2012 ). Here, the rituals and ceremonies
associated with death continue to send the spirit on. As in Clifford’s
story, in the wharenui there is often whaikōrero (oratory), whakapapa
(recitation of genealogy) and poroporoaki (speeches of farewell) before
internment.
While such end-of-life customs are often upheld in Māori culture,
the concept of organ donation does not always sit with so easily with
traditional Māori principles, as Clifford’s mother states. Although Māori
beliefs are diverse, a central part of Maori world view is that the body
comprises of wairua (spirit) and mauri (lifeforce) with every part of the
body endowed with hau (vital spirit). Therefore, the donation of an
organ to another person is an act that bestows part of the self (wairua)
to another (Mauss 1990 ).
In Māori culture, the body also holds an existential interpretation
(Webb and Shaw 2011 ) and links past and future generations (whaka-
papa). In traditional Māori practices, it is usual for the body to be bur-
ied whole in order to return the tūpāpaku to papatūānuku (mother
earth) and continue the ancestral line. Removal of any body part is
seen to leave the body exposed and defenceless, violating tapu. It may
that the impact of this could be minimised by holding a formal cere-
mony (pōwhiri) at the bedside to farewell the organs prior to removal
(Ngahooro 2010 ). Such actions, together with recognition of and dis-
cussion about Māori people like Clifford, whose organs have been
donated, can help promote understanding of organ donation. As put by
Clifford’s mother, ‘it can help lessening of the reservations ... and aver-
sions’.
Case 3: Bioethical Commentary
Once more, as in the other two previous cases in this chapter, we see
an example of the underpinning beneficence and goodwill of everyday