Graduate student studying organ donation and transplantation

Masters student wishes to interview people in Ontario, Canada who have recieved organ transplants, who are on waiting lists, living donors, surving donor kin, and people who have signed organ donation cards

I received this email from Adrian Bertoli and am posting it here so you can review his request and respond if you are able to offer him any help.

Dear Merv,

I would like to start off by saying that as a Master's student whose thesis is on organ donation, I find your blog very informative and interesting.

My name is Adrian Bertoli and I am currently in my second year of a M.Phil in International Community Health. My thesis is titled "Organ Donation as a Cultural Phenomenon: A Canadian Context."

I feel that broader issues that fall outside of a biomedical understanding of organ donation/transplantation are under-represented in the literature. My interest in organ donation/transplantation lies with questions touching upon notions of self and social identity, citizenship and worth.

I am also interested in looking at how people involved with organ donation/transplantation view themselves and the procedure (from donation through transplant and beyond) and how the rest of society views them. I am also curious as to the various metaphorical or symbolic meanings people might ascribe to different organs.

To study this, I wish to interview people who have recieved organ transplants, who are on waiting lists, living donors, surving donor kin, and people who have signed organ donation cards. I am in the phase of looking up and establishing contacts.

I was wondering if you knew of any support groups for transplant recipients, those on waiting list, or donors and their families in the Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto or London area. Also, I feel that because of your role as an advocate, and through the maintenance of your blog it would be very interesting if we could meed to discuss the issues pertaining to my thesis. I am in Guelph, and will be around until the new year.

I look forward to hearing from you and would like very much the chance to have a discussion with you. I have included an executive summary of my research protocol for extra information. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Adrian Bertoli
a.j.bertoli@studmed.uio.no

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