PhD Project: Organ Donation after Death in Germany. An Ethnographic Exploration into the Multifaceted Process of Decision Making
 

Inge Fiedler is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Law and Anthropology and will employ an interdisciplinary perspective that will combine social anthropology and the study of religion.

Organ donation after death in Germany is regulated with an informed consent law. People have to actively document their decision to donate, or since March 2024 can register their decision online. But in most cases of actual organ donation decisions in clinics in Germany, about 80%, are made in conversation with the next of kin of the potential organ donor. These conversations are Either to inquire about a documented will or to determine an assumed will.

The decision to donate organs is often framed as an altruistic act. Yet the circumstances under which decisions are made, as well as the reasons for or against donation, are highly personal and individual. Biographical experiences, worldviews, and family relations all play a significant role in decisions relating to death and organ donation.
Death based on neurological criteria remains a difficult concept to communicate. Relatives who had doubts about this and regretted organ donation are among the most active critics.

The public discourse in Germany is dominated by the urgency of the so-called “organ shortage” and resulting deaths of patients on the waiting list. The discursive framing of this issue has shifted from a medical to a societal one: patients do not die because of their failing organ, but because of the unwillingness in society to donate.

The moralities involved in organ donation in Germany revolve around the certainty of death, the experience of grief, concepts of altruism and meaning making.

This study will investigate the facets of this process from the perspective of the decision-makers in organ donation as well as from the perspective of the facilitators of decisions.