Nancy Scheper Hughes

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Today, medical anthropologist Nancy Scheper Hughes came to campus to speak about organ trafficking. I was familiar with Scheper-Hughes through reading Death Without Weeping, an ethnographic account of maternal-child relationships in Brazil.

Nancy Scheper Hughes is director of Organ Watch, a group that monitors and makes an effort to document organ trafficking.

Some points she brought up that I would like to further explore include...

RELATING TO ORGAN TRAFFICKING

• invisible sacrifice
• donors as "biodisposables"
• "fresh organs" (from living donors)
• Ethical Transplant Committee
• Bellagio Taskforce (http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList302/87DC95FCA3C3D63EC1256B66005B3F6C)
• Israel as a special case because of political/cultural attitude (brain death is not death) -->Zaki Shapira -->http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/334/7601/973
• -->Israel formally outsourced kidney transplants (but it is contentious to report on this because of "blood libel" and tension towards Israel)
• Argentina's Colonia Montes de Oca
• India
• -->bio-availability
• -->bio sociality
• -->emergence of cyclosporine as key
• -->Lawrence Cohen's scholarship (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_n8_v107/ai_21191220/)
• -->medical citizenship
• -->economic involvement
• Surgical medical diplomacy
• GLOBAL VALUES
• -->how do values travel?
• -->attitudes towards market solutions
• -->body as commodity
• -->human dignity and human freedom
• -->lethal injection as medicalized; mix of medicine and criminal justice
• -->ex] China didn't understand what's wrong with using executed prisoner population for transplants
• -->transparency as a Western value
• -->neoliberal defense of organ sales
• -->Anthropological Defense against organ trafficking
• ----->global social justice
• ----->equity
• ----->solidarity
• ----->values at stake
• Neoliberal versus anthropological values
• -->humanitarianism vs utilitarianism
• Lancet article about kidney transplants
• Kidney as a commodity
• -->circulation follows flow of capital in many ways!
• Good article--> "This Little Kidney Went to Market"
• "scars on geopolitical"
• "neocannibalism"
• "kidney half life"

RELATING TO PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGY

• "scholarship with commitment"
• ethics of anthropology-->criminology & undercover

FURTHER SCHOLARSHIP

• Francois Rabelais (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Rabelais)
• Jean Comaeroff (http://anthropology.uchicago.edu/faculty/faculty_comaroff_jean.shtml)

My Questions--Answered

• Do sellers see their contribution as a gift of life?
• -->not the sense of "transplant altruism" that we typically perceive
• what is coercion?
• -->could just be montary incentive
• Should there be regulation?
• -->big question, maybe a watchgroup is enough ?!?!
• -->it seems countries have set their own legal precedents

Making a shark ejaculate

Weds., April 8, 2009

Today in bio lab we dissected dogfish shark.
My team had a male--we could tell because of the claspers surrounding his cloaca.
After eviscerating the digestive tract, we moved on to the reproductive system. I was following the path of sperm from the testes, through the seminal vesicles down to the seminiferous tubules near the cloaca. Trying to identify where the sperm are ejected from the cloaca, I gave it a little pressure and---squirt.
Like a volcanic eruption, preserved white semen ejected from a hole under the claspers of the cloaca.

Hot, huh?

At least I can please sharks! :)

To Read

N Engl J Med. 2008 Nov 6;359(19):1977-81.
Saying no isn't NICE - the travails of Britain's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.Steinbrook R.

Thoughts on Campus Commentary

Some thoughts I have from different speakers who have come to campus this semester...
-->Mohammad Yunis and sustainability
-->Philanthrocapitalism: can it really work?

JOB STRESSES AND HEALTH
-->job security and health
-->Read: Greenhouse's The Big Squeeze
-->comparison of US financial crisis to Japan's lost decade
-->Japanese exposure to stock market
-->Tasks towards resolving inequality
-->look into Employee Free Choice Act
-->Reduce discrimination towards part-time workers
-->improve work/life balance
-->compare us to Sweden!

GUATEMALA
-->Babette Zemel's scholarship on nutrition and growth
-->Fetal programming hypothesis (CV)
-->SES composite indices (list of variables w/ FJ; Population Studies Center; Gere Berham; demographers)
-->SV
-->mother's intake depending on number of times
-->3 day recalls
-->what cook with?
-->growth during pregnancy: dietary reference intake? body range? body weight? for normal growth!
-->24 hour recalls
-->mypyramid.gov: analyze diet (Minnesota database?)--energy, protein, fats, minerals

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
07 April 2009
This evening I heard the president of the American Medical Association, Dr. Nancy Nielsen speak about the health care revolution. Topics that came up included: single payer system (never going to work!), defensive medicine, rationing beginning of life and end of life care, end of life care (our culture really differs from others, that consider family essential to end of life care!)

Spring Break

3.14.09 (Pi Day)

Spring break--time to relax, unwind, wind up, and let loose. 

What did I do? 

First weekend--work, putting together proposal for research in Guatemala this summer. Intimidating, yes. What do I say? Of course I say what I want to do--study nutrition in Guatemala, but how do I say it to sound convincing enough? Stress, stress, stress. Frustration. 

Monday through Thursday--Washington, DC

I visited my third cousin, really my grandfather's cousin. About 50 years my senior, she is also an inspiration. Daughter of surgeon general (some 40 years ago), we discussed health policy, the financial crisis, international travels, and family history. 

During the day, I walked the streets of Georgetown, U Street, Dupont Circle. I walked Dupont Circle to the Mall, appreciated the current exhibits at the Hirshhorn. I even met up with a friend who had graduated from Ballroom. My last night, I went with my cousin to see a documentary profiling PhD students at Columbia pursuing their theses in biochemistry. 

Friday through Saturday--

I am enjoying my time in NYC with Karen, a friend I graduated with from high school. She has introduced me to so many people--great people, I am happy that she has formed such important relationships here in NYC. Last night, she showed me a view of NYC from the roof of the international studies building on campus. It was an adventure getting there and thoroughly unforgettable. 

Thanks to Karen, I am updating my blog, procuring twitter,and hoping to update more often to keep those dear to me informed. 

With love and happiness, 

Hayley 

Culpabilidad

I feel awful!
Yesterday upon waking up, I realized that someone from PLBD had sent out an e mail reminding us to update the officers blog. So, trying to be the people pleaser that I am, I went to work on responding to the questions he had posed. I also answered some questions that others had asked on the same e mail.
Then, later that night, to my dismay the Team Captain approached me with a serious face. It turns out he had sent out a separate e mail informing us not to post material that the former person and I had posted. I just wanted to cry. How can people pleasing take me to such the wrong places?
I had just gotten through a day in which I was happy because I hadn't been making too many mistakes. I single-handedly organized a speaking event for Casa, I had successfully organized all privates for the week, and I thought I had helped out the board earlier that morning.
I also felt bad because I ignored something another PLBD board member had shared with us about the purpose of the blog. And it was her birthday they day before, so my ignorance was clearly unjustified.
How can I be such a bad human being. An ignorant sac of people pleasing toadiness?

Soledad

February 16--
Why do waves of loneliness drown me?
Why do waves of loneliness drown me?
Why do my eyes feel tired from crying when I have not shed a tear?
Why do I only shallowly complete my tasks?
Why do waves of loneliness drown me?