Fieldwork in Grey Zones : A case study on organ trafficking in the Philippines

• In this chapter I present a multi-sited fieldwork set in the Philippines that examines trade in organs from living individuals. The organ commerce generally involves organs harvested from living persons. Since humans have two kidneys and can survive with one, it is primarily kidneys that are transplanted, but also illegally traded. Here, my focus is solely on kidney transplantation. The ambition is to capture some fundamental features of what enables transplants in society's legal and moral outskirts, that is to follow the specific question, in Nordstrom͛s sense (2004:13) about what makes organ trade work as well as what social anthropologists Lawrence Cohen and Nancy Scheper Huges term the ͚Rotten Trade͛ (Cohen and Scheper-Hughes 2009). The method is primarily ethnography, making use of observations and interviews.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Etnologi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Ethnology (hsv//eng)

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