Failing livers, anticipated futures and un/desired transplants.

Rehsmann, Julia (2022). Failing livers, anticipated futures and un/desired transplants. Anthropology & medicine, 29(1), pp. 92-106. Taylor & Francis 10.1080/13648470.2021.2017126

Text 13648470.2021.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (1MB) | Request a copy

This article looks at liver transplants as life-prolonging treatment for chronic liver failure and examines the role anticipation plays in the context of chronic liver conditions. Based on anthropological fieldwork in Germany, this article draws on three exemplary patient accounts to show how the anticipatory experience of waiting for a liver transplant serves as an important period in transplant trajectories, and how the lack of a wait may have long-term consequences for patients' wellbeing. A focus on waiting and anticipation in the context of chronic livers enables new understandings of the complex temporal qualities that living with chronic conditions entails. As the sole long-term treatment available for failing livers, the possibilities of transplant medicine shape patients' anticipation of their future. Conversely, the particular futures that patients anticipate mould how they make sense of their transplant and their chronic pre- and post-transplant lives. This article shows that rather than offering a unilinear treatment with a clear-cut end, liver transplants, as treatment for a wide range of chronic conditions, reproduce chronic lives.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

1 since deposited on 22 Feb 2022
0 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item