Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Ethnographic Investigation of the "Iranian Model" for Paid Unrelated Kidney Donation

博士生Elham Mireshghi(加州大学欧文分校)将在Michael Montoya博士的指导下，通过审查人体器官捐赠监管政策的制定和实施，从事公共政策、宗教和生物技术的交叉研究。此前的研究要么关注无私的器官捐赠，要么关注非法器官市场。这个项目将在伊朗进行，伊朗是唯一一个肾脏捐赠财政支付合法和官僚例行化的国家，这是一个以前从未被社会科学家调查过的器官捐赠领域。Mireshghi将使用多种社会科学研究方法来收集数据。她将对从四个主要群体中抽取的样本进行访谈：倡导并现在实施这项政策的组织；医生；接受咨询的神职人员；以及捐赠者、接受者及其家人。她还将在手术所在的医院观察，并收集和分析宗教文献。这项研究很重要，因为它将有助于理解敏感创新受到监管的过程，以及这些监管如何与它们存在的社会、文化和经济背景相联系。这项研究的发现也可能有助于关于解决全球器官短缺问题的辩论。资助这项研究还支持研究生的教育。这项研究得到了NSF文化人类学项目和法律和社会科学项目的支持。

Doctoral student Elham Mireshghi (University of California, Irvine), under the supervision of Dr. Michael Montoya, will undertake research on the intersection of public policy, religion, and biotechnology through an examination of the making and implementation of policy for the regulation of human organ donation. Previous research has focused on either altruistic organ donations or illegal organ markets. This project will be undertaken in Iran, which is the only country where financial payment for kidney donation is legal and bureaucratically routinized, an arena of organ donation that has not previously been investigated by social scientists.Mireshghi will employ multiple social scientific research methods for data collection. She will conduct interviews with samples drawn from the four primary groups involved: the organization that instigated and now implements the policy; medical doctors; clerics who were consulted; and donors, recipients, and their families. She also will observe at hospitals where the operations are performed and collect and analyze religious documents.The research is important because it will contribute to understanding the process by which sensitive innovations are regulated and how those regulations are connected to social, cultural, and economic contexts in which they exist. Findings from the research may also contribute to the debate on solutions for the worldwide organ shortage. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student. This research is supported by both the NSF Cultural Anthropology Program and the Law and Social Sciences Program.