Monir Moniruzzaman
Biographic Data
| ID | 3621696 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Monir Moniruzzaman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Monir |
| FAMILY NAME | Moniruzzaman |
| SIGNATURE | MONIRUZZAMAN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Michigan State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 19 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
When the Debt Cuts Deep
While microcredit lending, a Nobel prize-winning program, is praised as a silver bullet to end world poverty, I discover that it adversely contributes to organ selling in Bangladesh. The poor become willing agents in selling their bodily organs to service debt is not a new topic; however, the ways they become entangled with the microfinance industry is an alarming phenomenon. Drawing on my ethnographic research on organ trafficking, I uncover tha…
The state of the organ trade
This paper provides a comparative analysis of the trade in human organs in Egypt and Bangladesh. The authors draw on extensive qualitative and ethnographic fieldwork in both countries to assess the efficacy of legal measures in response to the organ trade. Despite the introduction of tough criminal sanctions in Egypt and Bangladesh the buying and selling of organs (e.g., kidneys, liver lobes) has continued unabated. Although there have been some …
The Heavier Selves
The rapid growth of organ transplantation has created an illegal market for human organs sourced from the destitute poor predominantly in the developing world. Drawing on challenging fieldwork, I investigate the lived experiences of organ sellers who sold their bodily organs on the black market of Bangladesh. Sellers' narratives reveal that living without an organ is not just a bodily alteration, but instead it results in embodied suffering and o…
The trade in human liver lobes
The rapid growth in organ transplantation has created an illicit trade in human organs. The kidney trade has flourished in the last few decades, but in the last few years this has been coupled with an emerging liver trade. This article examines the liver trade sourced from poor sellers in Bangladesh. Through ethnographic fieldwork, I investigate how a landless farmer and a village housewife both sell their liver lobes on the black market, and how…
Against a Regulated Market in Human Organs
While organ transplantation is often highly successful in saving lives, it has created an illicit, but thriving, trade in human organs, including kidneys, livers, and corneas sourced from living bodies of the desperate poor. Based on challenging ethnographic fieldwork with seventy organ sellers, along with a group of recipients, brokers, and doctors, this article explains how organ trade results in violence, exploitation, and suffering against th…
Saving the Starfish
This paper examines how an overseas medical student can improve the life of a kamlari, an indentured servant girl in Nepal. I argue that physicians and students should not only provide care for the health and well-being of patients but also act to ameliorate the suffering of their patients, particularly when patients' social, cultural, economic, and political vulnerabilities overshadow their immediate clinical needs. I also address the point that…
Spareparts.exchange
Spare Parts (spareparts.exchange) is an art installation created collaboratively by Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Jim Ruxton, Camille Turner, and Monir Moniruzzaman. Based on Monir Moniruzzaman’s ethnographic research on the illicit organ trade, Spare Parts explores the ethics of organ trafficking and the emergence of bodily inequality in times of transplant tinkering. In this installation, the viewer is confronted with life sized video projections of R…
The transplant imaginary
Lesley Sharp strikes again. In her new book, entitled, The Transplant Imaginary: Mechanical Hearts, Animal Parts, and Moral Thinking in Highly Experimental Science, Sharp examines the ‘moral thinki
New Organ within Us
"Living Cadavers" in Bangladesh
The technology-driven demand for the extraction of human organs-mainly kidneys, but also liver lobes and single corneas-has created an illegal market in body parts. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, in this article I examine the body bazaar in Bangladesh: in particular, the process of selling organs and the experiences of 33 kidney sellers who are victims of this trade. The sellers' narratives reveal how wealthy buyers (both recipients and brokers…
The ripples changed our lives”
Purpose The December 2004 tsunami was one of the largest natural disasters in the recent history of Southeast Asia. This paper aims to unfold the experiences of tsunami victims in a highly affected region of Thailand and to examine their post‐tsunami health. Design/methodology/approach Ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in Khao Lak and Thi Muang, two major tsunami affected towns in southern Thailand in May 2007. Detailed informal interviews a…
"Living Cadavers" in Bangladesh
The technology-driven demand for the extraction of human organs-mainly kidneys, but also liver lobes and single corneas-has created an illegal market in body parts. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, in this article I examine the body bazaar in Bangladesh: in particular, the process of selling organs and the experiences of 33 kidney sellers who are victims of this trade. The sellers' narratives reveal how wealthy buyers (both recipients and brokers…
The Heavier Selves
The rapid growth of organ transplantation has created an illegal market for human organs sourced from the destitute poor predominantly in the developing world. Drawing on challenging fieldwork, I investigate the lived experiences of organ sellers who sold their bodily organs on the black market of Bangladesh. Sellers' narratives reveal that living without an organ is not just a bodily alteration, but instead it results in embodied suffering and o…
The trade in human liver lobes
The rapid growth in organ transplantation has created an illicit trade in human organs. The kidney trade has flourished in the last few decades, but in the last few years this has been coupled with an emerging liver trade. This article examines the liver trade sourced from poor sellers in Bangladesh. Through ethnographic fieldwork, I investigate how a landless farmer and a village housewife both sell their liver lobes on the black market, and how…
The ripples changed our lives”
Purpose The December 2004 tsunami was one of the largest natural disasters in the recent history of Southeast Asia. This paper aims to unfold the experiences of tsunami victims in a highly affected region of Thailand and to examine their post‐tsunami health. Design/methodology/approach Ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in Khao Lak and Thi Muang, two major tsunami affected towns in southern Thailand in May 2007. Detailed informal interviews a…
New Organ within Us
"Living Cadavers" in Bangladesh
The technology-driven demand for the extraction of human organs-mainly kidneys, but also liver lobes and single corneas-has created an illegal market in body parts. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, in this article I examine the body bazaar in Bangladesh: in particular, the process of selling organs and the experiences of 33 kidney sellers who are victims of this trade. The sellers' narratives reveal how wealthy buyers (both recipients and brokers…
The transplant imaginary
Lesley Sharp strikes again. In her new book, entitled, The Transplant Imaginary: Mechanical Hearts, Animal Parts, and Moral Thinking in Highly Experimental Science, Sharp examines the ‘moral thinki
Spareparts.exchange
Spare Parts (spareparts.exchange) is an art installation created collaboratively by Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Jim Ruxton, Camille Turner, and Monir Moniruzzaman. Based on Monir Moniruzzaman’s ethnographic research on the illicit organ trade, Spare Parts explores the ethics of organ trafficking and the emergence of bodily inequality in times of transplant tinkering. In this installation, the viewer is confronted with life sized video projections of R…
Saving the Starfish
This paper examines how an overseas medical student can improve the life of a kamlari, an indentured servant girl in Nepal. I argue that physicians and students should not only provide care for the health and well-being of patients but also act to ameliorate the suffering of their patients, particularly when patients' social, cultural, economic, and political vulnerabilities overshadow their immediate clinical needs. I also address the point that…
Against a Regulated Market in Human Organs
While organ transplantation is often highly successful in saving lives, it has created an illicit, but thriving, trade in human organs, including kidneys, livers, and corneas sourced from living bodies of the desperate poor. Based on challenging ethnographic fieldwork with seventy organ sellers, along with a group of recipients, brokers, and doctors, this article explains how organ trade results in violence, exploitation, and suffering against th…
The Heavier Selves
The rapid growth of organ transplantation has created an illegal market for human organs sourced from the destitute poor predominantly in the developing world. Drawing on challenging fieldwork, I investigate the lived experiences of organ sellers who sold their bodily organs on the black market of Bangladesh. Sellers' narratives reveal that living without an organ is not just a bodily alteration, but instead it results in embodied suffering and o…
The trade in human liver lobes
The rapid growth in organ transplantation has created an illicit trade in human organs. The kidney trade has flourished in the last few decades, but in the last few years this has been coupled with an emerging liver trade. This article examines the liver trade sourced from poor sellers in Bangladesh. Through ethnographic fieldwork, I investigate how a landless farmer and a village housewife both sell their liver lobes on the black market, and how…
The state of the organ trade
This paper provides a comparative analysis of the trade in human organs in Egypt and Bangladesh. The authors draw on extensive qualitative and ethnographic fieldwork in both countries to assess the efficacy of legal measures in response to the organ trade. Despite the introduction of tough criminal sanctions in Egypt and Bangladesh the buying and selling of organs (e.g., kidneys, liver lobes) has continued unabated. Although there have been some …
When the Debt Cuts Deep
While microcredit lending, a Nobel prize-winning program, is praised as a silver bullet to end world poverty, I discover that it adversely contributes to organ selling in Bangladesh. The poor become willing agents in selling their bodily organs to service debt is not a new topic; however, the ways they become entangled with the microfinance industry is an alarming phenomenon. Drawing on my ethnographic research on organ trafficking, I uncover tha…
Political science (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Economics (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Organ Donation and Transplantation (6 works) · Medicine (5 works) · Law (4 works) · Narrative (4 works) · Art (3 works) · Business (3 works)