My Heart Will Go On: The cybernetics of organ harvesting, donor (im)mortality and the politics of the non-self

In this paper, I inquire how conceptualisations of self affect practices of organ exchange. I unravel assumptions on the self of the medico-scientific community and question them, using some key alternatives that arise in literature in comparative philosophy, and researching alternatives in India. More specifically, I aim to extend interpretative tools, looking into concepts of `inter-being' and `non-being'. I then illustrate how differing patterns in `self'-understanding may cause tension vis-à-vis both the network and practice of organ harvesting. Aside from tensions that become visible in overt patterns of social stratification relations, hidden theories of affliction play a crucial role. To uncover these hidden tensions I use Hogle's concept of a `residue of personhood'. This residue may, after transplantation from a brain dead donor, provoke the generation of a symbolic `donor immortality' and/or induce the experience of `bewitchment' in a host body. This contrasts with the biological death arising in `the giver of life' at the moment of organ transfer. Hence, the problematic conjunction of regeneration and mortuary ritual that seems inherent in the practice of organ exchange.