Japan’s rapidly aging society has the highest ratio of citizens living on kidney dialysis among OECD countries and yet the lowest ratio living with a transplanted kidney. This is because Japan performs almost no deceased donor transplantation. Instead, there is a small but growing practice of living donor transplantation. These guidelines reflect historical debates about the status of neurological death and a cultural hesitancy to transfer resources between anonymous strangers. Instead, transplant programs rely on living, kin donors, whose gift may be naturalized as a reflection of love and sacrifice, but who may not necessarily be a biological match with the recipient. Donors are also disproportionately female. The talk considers the trade-offs of these different ethics of care, including aggressive regimens of immunosuppression necessary to sustain transplant programs limited to kin donors and recipients. 

Co-sponsored by Princeton Precision Health and the Department of Anthropology.

Lunch will be provided. 

Getting to the seminar space currently requires that you climb a set of stairs. If an accommodation is needed, please contact PPH in advance at:

[email protected]