'I Would Prefer Not To'. Organ Donation Between Unease and Criticism. A Sociological and Ethical Analysis

Summary

The project is a sequel to the project ‘I would prefer not to.’ Organ donation between unease and criticism. In the first stage, the motives of skeptics of organ donation as well as of the undecided were examined along with the posters of German organ donation campaigns of the past 20 years. The main results highlight four types of criticism which are not directly linked to the recent events in the transplantation system. However, they also highlight six different moral messages in the posters that are historically associated with important events and disruptions in the transplantation system. These results indicate that specific positions and aspects are excluded both in the public discourse and in health policy.

In the second stage, strategies of the public discourse and of health communication which systematically exclude positions are to be reconstructed as well as their consequences for the critics. Moreover, these strategies of exclusion should be reflected normatively for the development of ideas concerning concrete discursive inclusion of positions that are currently being declassified as "irrational".

The sociological project will, from a theoretical perspective, question how the arguments of these "irrational" positions can be understood as well-founded arguments. In addition, the project will analyse the strategies that exclude these positions in daily life as well as in health policy and the academic discourse.
Particularly, the one-sidedness of the analysed campaigns illustrates the conflict of interest of the Transplantation Act. On the one hand, institutions of health policy have to inform neutrally about the topic in order to allow a self-determined decision. On the other hand, organ donation should be promoted to increase the number of transplants. Accordingly, the bioethical subproject questions how a normative concept of public health communication can be designed to achieve a reflective balance between individual self-determination and the collective interest in organ transplants. Therefore, the analysis aims at critically addressing the question of what comprises 'good' information in such a sensitive field. Moreover, the personal attitudes and moral convictions for and against organ transplantation are to be better understood.

By developing socio-theoretical and normative approaches, both subprojects aim at a critical analysis of the high symbolic value of organ transplantation for the self-conception of modern high-tech medicine.