Till Death do us Part: cultural assumptions of self-understanding and consciousness hypotheses in relation to brain death and cadaveric organ harvesting

India outlawed the sale of human organs in 1994 with the Organ Transplantation Act. Still, an estimated number of 2000 kidneys are being sold every year. The big question at this moment in India is how the rapidly growing illegal organ market can be halted. Two responses have been proposed. The first, re-legalising organ sale, may continue to harm the poor who would sell organs to the benefit of the rich. The Indian government has therefore opted for the second response and is planning to launch a national program to promote the harvesting of healthy organs from brain dead patients. It hopes in this way to meet the high demand for organs, assuming that an increase in supply of organs will put an end to illegal organ trade. However, contrary to theoretical hypothesis, ONGs have found, empirical research has revealed a resistance vis-à-vis cadaveric organ donation. The starting point of this research is the assumption that there are cultural factors and dynamics that may explain this friction.

The research objective:
Investigate if there are cultural notions of body, gift and social hierarchy that facilitate or go against the acceptance of the definition of brain death and / or the practice of organ harvesting from brain death 'donors'. I will also investigate how local answers to the mind-body problem may exercise influence, with a focus mainly on (social) memory research.

By means of looking at cross-cultural frictions when brain death organ harvesting is implemented, it is my aim to uncover assumptions of 'self' and consciousness that may be hidden in the definition of brain death by default.