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Edited Books by Ulls Ekström von Essen

This book is the outcome of a research project at the Centre for Studies in Practical Knowledge,... more This book is the outcome of a research project at the Centre
for Studies in Practical Knowledge, Södertörn University,
funded by the Baltic Sea Foundation. The main participants
of the project were one philosopher—Fredrik Svenaeus—
one historian—Ulla Ekström von Essen—and three ethnologists—
Martin Gunnarson, Susanne Lundin and Markus
Idvall—from Södertörn University and Lund University,
but we also benefitted from the help and advice of medical
researchers and physicians from the Karolinska Institutet
—Annika Tibell and C. G. Groth—and many other scholars
from Sweden and abroad, especially from the Baltic Sea Region.
You will find some of our collaborators represented
as authors in this volume, but most of them are not on the
list of participants, since they, for ethical reasons, have to
remain anonymous. The persons in question have helped
us with information about and access to practices which are
precarious objects of study—organ transplantation and organ
trade—subjects that are highly sensitive and often hard
to speak about for the people involved. We want to thank
the health care personnel, patients and other persons, who
have generously offered us their time without any other
return than to be able to support the growth of knowledge
and reflection in this field. We hope that this book and other
outcomes of our research project, such as articles in journals
and newspapers, and presentations at conferences and
meetings with the public, will help to build sound political
judgement and policies on organ, tissue and cell donation.
The rules and procedures of organ, tissue and cell transfer
are, indeed, vital, not only in the sense that they concern
who will live and who will die, but also in the sense that
the decisions in question determine how we are to view the
moral essence of human relationships as such. What duties
do we owe to each other regarding the giving away of what is
most intimately ours: our bodies and the organs, tissues and
cells they consist of? And what limits should we set regarding
procuring and transferring the “things” in question?

Papers by Ulls Ekström von Essen

purposes. First, it safeguards the normalizing ability of biomedical intervention. Viewed from th... more purposes. First, it safeguards the normalizing ability of biomedical intervention. Viewed from the perspective of the "gift of life," transplantation does not only save the recipient's life, but it also restores health in such a way that the life that was interrupted by the onset of illness may be resumed. Second, imagining transplantation in this way sustains the moral economy in which individuals become responsible for working on and actualizing themselves. Freed from the passivity and suffering caused by the dialysis machine the kidney recipient is able to resume responsibility for and take control over his or her body and self. Through the "gift of life" metaphor a sharp line between normal-life with a transplant-and abnormal-life with dialysis-is maintained for ideological as well as practical purposes. Ulla Ekström von Essen puts the spotlight on the found

This book is the outcome of a research project at the Centre for Studies in Practical Knowledge,... more This book is the outcome of a research project at the Centre
for Studies in Practical Knowledge, Södertörn University,
funded by the Baltic Sea Foundation. The main participants
of the project were one philosopher—Fredrik Svenaeus—
one historian—Ulla Ekström von Essen—and three ethnologists—
Martin Gunnarson, Susanne Lundin and Markus
Idvall—from Södertörn University and Lund University,
but we also benefitted from the help and advice of medical
researchers and physicians from the Karolinska Institutet
—Annika Tibell and C. G. Groth—and many other scholars
from Sweden and abroad, especially from the Baltic Sea Region.
You will find some of our collaborators represented
as authors in this volume, but most of them are not on the
list of participants, since they, for ethical reasons, have to
remain anonymous. The persons in question have helped
us with information about and access to practices which are
precarious objects of study—organ transplantation and organ
trade—subjects that are highly sensitive and often hard
to speak about for the people involved. We want to thank
the health care personnel, patients and other persons, who
have generously offered us their time without any other
return than to be able to support the growth of knowledge
and reflection in this field. We hope that this book and other
outcomes of our research project, such as articles in journals
and newspapers, and presentations at conferences and
meetings with the public, will help to build sound political
judgement and policies on organ, tissue and cell donation.
The rules and procedures of organ, tissue and cell transfer
are, indeed, vital, not only in the sense that they concern
who will live and who will die, but also in the sense that
the decisions in question determine how we are to view the
moral essence of human relationships as such. What duties
do we owe to each other regarding the giving away of what is
most intimately ours: our bodies and the organs, tissues and
cells they consist of? And what limits should we set regarding
procuring and transferring the “things” in question?

purposes. First, it safeguards the normalizing ability of biomedical intervention. Viewed from th... more purposes. First, it safeguards the normalizing ability of biomedical intervention. Viewed from the perspective of the "gift of life," transplantation does not only save the recipient's life, but it also restores health in such a way that the life that was interrupted by the onset of illness may be resumed. Second, imagining transplantation in this way sustains the moral economy in which individuals become responsible for working on and actualizing themselves. Freed from the passivity and suffering caused by the dialysis machine the kidney recipient is able to resume responsibility for and take control over his or her body and self. Through the "gift of life" metaphor a sharp line between normal-life with a transplant-and abnormal-life with dialysis-is maintained for ideological as well as practical purposes. Ulla Ekström von Essen puts the spotlight on the found