Article ID: CBB327741289

Bioethics between Imaginary and Reality: Tracing Science Fiction and Its Shaping of Transplant Medicine Protocols in Japan (March 2019)

unapi

Sasaki, Kaori (Author)


East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal
Volume: 13
Issue: 1
Pages: 77-99


Publication Date: March 2019
Edition Details: Special Issue: Life, Science, and Power in History and Philosophy
Language: English

By extending the late Osamu Kanamori's notion of science fiction (sci-fi) as it "re-articulate[s] various issues that bioethical studies had formally discussed," this paper provides a cultural analysis of Japanese sci-fi stories from the 1990s with reference to the exchange of body parts. By focusing on the time when organ transplantation from brain-dead donors was part of many intensive debates, this paper pays particular attention to the fictional representations of humanity, which feature body-part exchanges between the living and the dead, in genres ranging from Noh 能 dramas to manga 漫画. In this paper I shed light on two issues: (1) how sci-fi representations described the matter of humanity vis-à-vis exchanging parts of the body, and (2) in what ways and on what terms bioethical discourses relating to Japanese organ transplant medicine from brain-dead donors were rearticulated through these sci-fi narratives. I also argue that such rearticulated values were inscribed in the process of constructing the bioethical code of practice in transplant medicine and deathbed care that took place during the late 1990s. By doing so, this paper confirms the role that sci-fi plays in bioethical imaginations, as Kanamori has pointed out and as can also be seen in East Asian societies like Japan.

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Includes Series Articles

Article Suzuki, Akihito (March 2019) The Life, Restoration, and Faking of the Bust of Nagayo Matarō. East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (pp. 113-114). unapi

Article Okumura, Daisuke; Suzuki, Akihito (March 2019) Essay: Osamu Kanamori and His Legacies on Epistemology, Criticism, and Cultural Study of Science. East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (pp. 101-112). unapi

Article Nakamura, Eri (March 2019) Psychiatrists as Gatekeepers of War Expenditure: Diagnosis and Distribution of Military Pensions in Japan during the Asia-Pacific War. East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (pp. 57-75). unapi

Article Suzuki, Akihito (March 2019) Public Health, Laboratory Experiment, and Asymptomatic Carriers in Japan, ca. 1920–1950. East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (pp. 39-55). unapi

Included in

Article Takabayashi, Akinobu (March 2019) Medical Technology in Use: A History of Clinical Thermometry in Modern Britain and Japan. East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (pp. 17-37). unapi

Article Suzuki, Akihito; Takabayashi, Akinobu (March 2019) Life, Science, and Power in History and Philosophy. East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (pp. 9-16). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB327741289/

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Authors & Contributors
Susanne Brucksch
Furlan, Enrico
Womack, Jeffrey
Sarah Teasley
Kevin Wiggert
Chozinski, Brittany Anne
Concepts
Technology and society
Medicine
Science fiction
Biology and ethics; bioethics
Organ transplantation
Medicine and ethics
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
Places
Japan
United States
Poland
Germany
India
Great Britain
Institutions
Royal College of Surgeons, London
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