Citation

Scheper-Hughes N. Ethnography 2004; 5(1): 29-73.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

This essay addresses some of the ethical, ethnographic, and political dilemmas of an idiosyncratic multi-sited research project exploring the illegal and covert activities surrounding the traffic in humans and their body parts by outlaw surgeons, kidney hunters, and transplant tourists engaged in 'back-door' transplants in the global economy. Specifically, in its odd juxtapositions of ethnography, documentation, surveillance, and human rights work, the research blends genres and transgresses long-standing distinctions between anthropology, political journalism, scientific reporting, political engagement, public interest anthropology, and human rights work. Case studies are used to illustrate the very different forms, practices, and emotions the organs trade encompasses. Further, the discussion attempts to recapture the 'basic strangeness' of a routine medical procedure--kidney transplant--that has become increasingly dependent on medically supported claims and rights to the healthy bodies of marginalized 'others.' Finally, an argument is made against bioethics and its capitulations to medical markets in bodies. Overall, the project is an attempt to recapture transplant medicine from the pressures of the global market and to restore it to its senses and to its original premise of social solidarity based on a shared humanity.

Keywords: Human trafficking

Language: en