Fighting Hydra: The Uncertainties of Waiting for a Liver Transplant

Rehsmann, Julia (2017). Fighting Hydra: The Uncertainties of Waiting for a Liver Transplant. Tsantsa, 22, pp. 47-56. Seismo

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This article sheds light on the experiences of people waiting for a liver transplant. I argue that waiting lists serve as a technological tool to deal with the uncertainties inherent in medicine, but like Hercules fighting Hydra, one tamed uncertainty is merely replaced by two new ones. Drawing on ethnographic material from Germany, I argue that these lists retain those waiting in a temporal limbo of uncertain duration and outcome, making them spatially, temporally and existentially immobile.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Social Anthropology

UniBE Contributor:

Rehsmann, Julia

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology

ISSN:

1420-7834

Publisher:

Seismo

Language:

English

Submitter:

Julia Rehsmann

Date Deposited:

24 Apr 2017 14:35

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:02

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.94808

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/94808

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