ABSTRACT
In this chapter I want to introduce the Organs Watch project—its scholarly, anthropological, and public engagements—as an example of what Pierre Bourdieu called “scholarship with commitment” (2000, p. 40). Elsewhere (Scheper-Hughes 2000, 2002a, 2002b, 2003, 2009, 2011a), I have grappled with the thorny issue of how to frame the problem of the emergence and spread of robust organs and transplant trafficking schemes. Is organs trafficking a solution based on a rational choice model of needs, desires, scarcities, supply, and demand? Is it a problem concerning the commodification of bodies, persons, and organs (Scheper-Hughes & Wacquant, 2002)? Is the question one of human dignity (precious lives) or indignity (wasted lives, wasted bodies)? Is it a narrative of human desperation and despair or is it best understood as a risky and extreme mobilization of hope and optimism (“Yes, I can, I will live!”)? Is it a question of human rights, and if so, whose rights are being protected (Friedlaendar, 2002), and whose rights are being denied or negated (Scheper-Hughes, 2003)? Are we best served by using a value-free term, “commercialized transplants” (Turner, 2009), suggesting that this is a problem that can be solved by the application of medical economics and business administration, (Cherry, 2005), or one that requires new laws and regulations (WHO, 2004)? Alternatively, does our subject fall into the domains of organized crime, human trafficking, medical human rights abuses, and even, in the worst instance, crimes against humanity (Scheper-Hughes, 2011a)?
