scholarly journals The Haunting Temporalities of Transplantation

2021 ◽  
pp. 1357034X2199872
Author(s):  
Donna McCormack
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Organ Transplantation ◽  
Deceased Donor ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Absent Presence ◽  
Strict Definition

This article examines the temporality of organ transplantation with a focus on memoirs where the recipient has received an organ from a deceased donor. I argue that death constitutes life. That is, this absent presence – that the organ is materially present but the person is dead and therefore absent – is the foundation for rethinking relationality as constituted through the haunting presence of those who remain central to the continuity of life but who are not alive in any strict definition of the term. This article is therefore attentive to the various meanings of haunting, drawing on queer theory to show how narratives of haunting are derealised experiences and thus a struggle for epistemological authority over specifically transplantation and relationality more broadly. It draws out how these epistemological challenges reimagine ontology as a haunted experience, and thus an intimate tie between the living and the unknown – and somewhat present – dead.

scholarly journals Controversy in the Determination of Death: The Definition and Moment of Death

2019 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 366-380
Author(s):  
Frederick J. White
Keyword(s):  
Organ Transplantation ◽  
Deceased Donor ◽  
Determination Of Death ◽  
Bodily Integrity ◽  
Donor Organ ◽  
Definition Of Death ◽  
Dead Donor Rule ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Definition Of

This essay reviews recent controversy in the determination of death, with particular attention to the definition and moment of death. Definitions of death have evolved from the intuitive to the pathophysiologic and the medicolegal. Many United States jurisdictions have codified the definition of death relying on guidance from the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA). Flaws in the structure of the UDDA have led to misunderstanding of the physiologic nature of death and methods for the determination of death, resulting in a bifurcated concept of death as either circulatory/respiratory or neurologic. The practice of organ donation after circulatory determination of death (DCDD) raises a number of ethical questions, most prominently revolving around the moment of death and manifested as an expedited time to determination of death, a departure from the unitary concept of death, a violation of the dead donor rule, and a challenge to the standard of irreversibility. Attempts to redefine the determination of death from an irreversibility standard to a permanence standard have significant impact on the social contract upon which deceased donor organ transplantation rests, and must entail broad societal examination. The determination of death is best reached by a clear, strict, and uniform irreversibility standard. In deceased donor organ transplantation, the interests of the donor as a person are paramount, and no interest of organ recipients or of the greater society can justify negation of the rights and bodily integrity of the person who is a donor, nor conversion of the altruism of giving into the calculus of taking.

Queer-Sensible Designing

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Silas DENZ ◽  
Wouter EGGINK
Keyword(s):  
Queer Theory ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Industrial Design ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Design Practice ◽  
Gender Scripts ◽  
Femininity And Masculinity ◽  
Design Workshop ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Design Style

Conventional design practices regard gender as a given precondition defined by femininity and masculinity. To shift these strategies to include non-heteronormative or queer users, queer theory served as a source of inspiration as well as user sensitive design techniques. As a result, a co-design workshop was developed and executed. Participants supported claims that gender scripts in designed artefacts uphold gender norms. The practice did not specify a definition of a queer design style. However, the co-design practice opened up the design process to non-normative gender scripts by unmasking binary gender dichotomies in industrial design.

scholarly journals Note on osmotic pressure

1914 ◽  
Vol 90 (615) ◽  
pp. 41-45
Keyword(s):  
Osmotic Pressure ◽  
Vapour Pressure ◽  
Numerical Data ◽  
The Other ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Capillary Surface ◽  
Pure Solvent ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Complete Account ◽  
Strict Definition

The vapour pressure theory regards osmotic pressure as the pressure required to produce equilibrium between the pure solvent and the solution. Pressure applied to a solution increases its internal vapour pressure. If the compressed solution be on one aide of a semi-permeable partition and the pure solvent on the other, there is osmotic equilibrium when the com-pression of the solution brings its vapour pressure to equality with that of the solvent. So long ago as 1894 Ramsay* found that with a partition of palladium, permeable to hydrogen but not to nitrogen, the hydrogen pressures on each side tended to equality, notwithstanding the presence of nitrogen under pressure on one side, which it might have been supposed would have resisted tin- transpiration of the hydrogen. The bearing of this experiment on the problem of osmotic pressure was recognised by van’t Hoff, who observes that "it is very instructive as regards the means by which osmotic pressure is produced." But it was not till 1908 that the vapour pressure theory of osmotic pressure was developed on a finu foundation by Calendar. He demonstrated, by the method of the "vapour sieve" piston, the proposition that “any two solutions in equilibrium through any kind of membrane or capillary surface must have the same vapour pressures in respect of each of their constituents which is capable of diffusing through their surface of separation"—a generalisation of great importance for the theory of solutions. Findlay, in his admirable monograph, gives a very complete account of the contending theories of osmotic pressure, a review of which leaves no doubt that at the present moment the vapour pressure theory stands without a serious rival Some confusion of ideas still arises from the want of adherence to a strict definition of osmotic pressure to which numerical data from experimental measurements should he reduced. Tire following definitions appear to be tire outcome of tire vapour pressure theory :— Definition I.—The vapour pressure of a solution is the pressure of the vapour with which it is in equilibrium when under pressure of its own vapour only.

scholarly journals Ethical and policy issues raised by uterus transplants

2019 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura O’Donovan ◽  
Nicola Jane Williams ◽  
Stephen Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Deceased Donor ◽  
Access To Treatment ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Uterus Transplantation ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
International Registry ◽  
Uterine Transplantation ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Surgical Teams ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract Introduction In 2014, Brännström and colleagues reported the first human live birth following uterine transplantation (UTx). Research into this treatment for absolute uterine factor infertility has since grown with clinical trials currently taking place across centers in at least thirteen countries worldwide. Sources of data This review summarizes and critiques the academic literature on ethical and policy issues raised by UTx. Areas of agreement There is general agreement on the importance of risk reduction and, in principle, to the sharing and maintenance of patient data on an international registry. Areas of controversy There are numerous areas of controversy ranging from whether it is ethically justified to carry out uterus transplants at all (considering the associated health risks) to how deceased donor organs for transplant should be allocated. This review focuses on three key issues: the choice between deceased and living donors, ensuring valid consent to the procedure and access to treatment. Growing points UTx is presently a novel and rare procedure but is likely to become more commonplace in the foreseeable future, given the large number of surgical teams working on it worldwide. Areas timely for developing research Uterus transplantation requires us to re-examine fundamental questions about the ethical and social value of gestation. If eventually extended to transgender women or even to men, it may also require us to reconceptualize what it is to be a ‘father’ or to be a ‘mother’, and the definition of these terms in law.

scholarly journals Poor ovarian reserve and male infertility in a rural in vitro fertilization setup: a case report

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 4020
Author(s):  
Neha V. Harne ◽  
Vaibhav K. Nadkarni ◽  
Purnima Nadkarni ◽  
Jigna Garasia
Keyword(s):  
Semen Analysis ◽  
Oocyte Quality ◽  
Reproductive Age ◽  
Vitro Fertilization ◽  
Advanced Reproductive Age ◽  
Sperm Chromosomes ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Poor Ovarian Reserve ◽  
Strict Definition

Female fertility begins to decline many years prior to the onset of menopause despite continued regular ovulatory cycles. Although there is no strict definition of advanced reproductive age in women, infertility becomes more pronounced after the age of 35. In the female, the number of oocytes decreases with age until the menopause. Oocyte quality also diminishes, due in part to increased aneuploidy because of factors such as changes in spindle integrity. Although older male age affects the likelihood of conception, abnormalities in sperm chromosomes and in some components of the semen analysis are less important than the frequency of intercourse. Age is as accurate as any other predictor of conception with assisted reproductive technology.

Hypnotic responding and self-deception

1997 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irving Kirsch
Keyword(s):  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Strict Definition

As understood by neodissociation and sociocognitive theorists, hypnotic responses are instances of self-deception. Neodissociation theory matches the strict definition of Sackeim and Gur (1978) and sociocognitive theory matches Mele's looser definition. Recent data indicate that many hypnotized individuals deceive themselves into holding conflicting beliefs without dissociating, but others convince themselves that the suggested state of affairs is true without simultaneously holding a contrary belief.

scholarly journals Does It Matter How We Die? Ethical and Legal Issues Raised by Combining Euthanasia and Organ Transplantation

2019 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Somerville
Keyword(s):  
Organ Donation ◽  
Organ Transplantation ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Definition Of Death ◽  
Dead Donor Rule ◽  
Ethical And Legal Issues ◽  
Definition Of

If, in jurisdictions with legalized euthanasia, obtaining organs for transplant from euthanized people is allowed, must their organs be taken only after death or should euthanasia be allowed to be performed by removal of vital organs? Asked another way, if “Donation after Death” is practiced, why not “Death by Donation?” The article addresses two questions. First, “What issues does connecting euthanasia and organ donation raise?” They include dealing with uncertainty regarding the definition of death, defining what constitutes conscientiously objecting healthcare professionals' involvement in euthanasia, and whether connecting euthanasia and transplantation makes conflicts of interest for healthcare professionals unavoidable. Additional issues raised by death by donation include breach of the “dead-donor rule”; what would constitute informed consent to it; and what impact its acceptance would have on important foundational societal values, especially respect for human dignity and human life. The second question is “Why might some people who agree with euthanasia and even organ donation after death by euthanasia find death by donation ethically unacceptable?” Considerations again include its harmful impact on upholding respect for human dignity and human life and that the “wisdom of repugnance” could be informing these people's reaction. It is concluded that in order to avoid serious breaches of ethics, organ transplantation and euthanasia should not be linked in any way.

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