Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Transplanting Kinship - Organ Transplantation, Kinship, and Daily Life in the U.S.

器官移植对美国的亲属关系有何影响？为了回答这个问题，研究生劳拉·海内曼将在马西娅·C·因霍恩博士的指导下，调查移植与成年移植接受者及其照顾者的日常生活的互动。本研究侧重于三个未经检验的假设：1)移植作为一种实践，既建立在美国的文化规范之上，也影响着美国的文化规范；2)在家中通过照顾活动培养的亲属关系是移植对日常生活影响的主要组成部分；3)社会分层创造的约束领域在移植与人类关系之间的互动中发挥了显著作用。这些假设将在美国中西部的一家主要移植中心进行探索，该中心采用一种护理模式，重点是利用家人和朋友来满足患者在住院期间和住院后的护理需求。研究人员将采用各种人种学和社会科学研究方法，包括半结构化、非结构化、系谱和生活史访谈；参与者观察；实地笔记和可视文件；以及卫生政策文件的审查。她建立在最近的亲属关系理论基础上，该理论考察了生物遗传关系以外的多种形式的亲属关系。比较将包括：1)通过“血缘”、婚姻或领养有血缘关系的患者和照顾者，与那些“像亲戚一样”但在这些方面没有血缘关系的人(了解什么是“亲属关系”)和2)在医院进行移植的经历，以及在家里进行移植护理的经历(以确定家庭在亲属关系和移植护理中的作用)。这些数据将根据整个移植过程中面临的限制进行评估。研究之所以重要，是因为它将有助于改善卫生政策、移植患者(以及其他患有严重长期疾病的患者)的结局、对护理人员的支持以及医疗专业人员和患者群体之间的沟通。在其他形式的亲属关系受到高度质疑的时候(例如，同性婚姻和通过新的生殖技术建立家庭)，这样的研究对于理解亲属关系被创造、巩固、质疑或改变的机制至关重要。这项研究还将对社会科学家的教育做出重大贡献。

How is organ transplantation affecting kin relations in the United States? To answer this question, graduate student Laura Heineman, supervised by Dr. Marcia C. Inhorn, will investigate the interaction of transplantation with the daily lives of adult transplant recipients and their caregivers. This study focuses on three untested assumptions that: 1) transplantation, as a practice, is both founded upon and affecting cultural norms in the U.S.; 2) kin relations, cultivated in the home through activities of giving care, are a major component of transplantation's impact on daily life; 3) the arenas of constraint created by social stratification figure significantly in interactions between transplantation and human relatedness. These assumptions will be explored at a major transplant center in the U.S. Midwest that employs a care model which focuses on the use of family and friends to meet patients' care needs both during and after hospitalization. The researcher will employ a variety of ethnographic and social science research methods, including semistructured, unstructured, genealogical, and life history interviews; participant observation; fieldnote and visual documentation; and review of health policy documents. She builds upon recent kinship theory, which examines multiple forms of relatedness beyond bio-genetic relations. Comparisons will include: 1) patients and caregivers who are related by "blood," marriage, or adoption, versus those who are "kin-like," but not related in these ways (to understand what constitutes "relatedness") and 2) the experiences of transplantation in the hospital, versus those of transplant caregiving in the home (to ascertain the role of the home in kinship and transplant care). These data will be evaluated in light of constraints faced throughout the transplant process.The research is important because it will be useful for improving health policy, outcomes for transplant patients (and others with serious, long-term illness), support for caregivers, and communication between medical professionals and patient populations. At a time when alternative forms of relatedness are highly contested (e.g., same-sex marriage and family-making via new reproductive technologies), studies such as this are crucial to understand the mechanisms by which kin relations are created, solidified, questioned, or changed. The research also will contribute significantly to the education of a social scientist.