Transplant technologies and organ donation: cultural and psychological aspects

The purpose of the study is to reconstruct the basic concepts of the mind-body continuum underlying transplantation technologies. Using modern research, the author shows that the application of transplantation technologies is based on ambivalent ideas: on the one hand, tissues and organs act as purely biological entities, on the other hand, they also imply the values of the subject’s personal and сultural identity. This involves an understanding of the challenges and requirements that accompany contemporary transplantation technologies: patients need to develop the ability to switch from one bodily identity to another (so-called «intercorporeality»), while transplant physicians need the ability to work with an intentional sphere of human mind. Using a number of cross-cultural studies, this paper offers a view of how the conception of death, body and identity varies in different cultural and social settings.