Posthumous autonomy
Agency and consent in body donation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21591753 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tom Farsides (0000-0001-8211-7242, University of Sussex, corresponding author), Claire F Smith (0000-0002-4366-8591, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, Falmer, East Sussex) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 599-624 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophical Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0951-5089 • E-ISSN: 1465-394X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09515089.2023.2197936 |
| OpenAlex | W4362667321 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
Six people were interviewed about the possibility of becoming posthumous body donors. Interview transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Individual-level analysis suggested a common interest in Personhood Concerns and a common commitment to Enlightenment Values. Investigations of these possible themes across participants resulted in identification of two sample-level themes, each with two subthemes: Autonomy, with subthemes of agency and consent, and Rationality, with subthemes of knowledge/epistemology and materialism/ontology. This paper concentrates on the former. Consent for posthumous body donation was felt to sometimes fall short of adequately identifying donors’ preferences about what happened after consent was given, even with respect to actions for which consent established permission. In turn, paucity of information about donors’ preferences limited others’ ability to act as proxy agents to facilitate donors’ posthumous autonomy. Thus, while consent may curtail violations of people’s autonomy by authorizing actions for which permission has been established, it may fall short of facilitating their autonomy in ways that might be possible with greater knowledge of those people’s desires. Alternative methods of establishing consent are explored that might better-determine people’s desires and thereby improve others’ ability to act as proxy agents for them to facilitate their subsequent (even posthumous) autonomy
Autonomy · Bioethics · Donation · Epistemology · Materialism · Permission · Personhood · Political science · Rationality · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Ethics in medical practice · Law · Patient Dignity and Privacy · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
Some limits of informed consent
Toward a Psychology of Human Agency
Checklists for improving rigour in qualitative research
Explaining the illusion of independent agency in imagined persons with a theory of practice
Qualitative methods show that surveys misrepresent “ought implies can” judgments
Considerations for making informed choices about engaging in open qualitative research
The question of question types in police interviews
Achieving excellence in interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA)
Multiperspectival designs and processes in interpretative phenomenological analysis research
Beyond “altruism motivates body donation”
Consent or Property? Dealing with the Body and its Parts in the Shadow of Bristol and Alder Hey
Frozen Corpses and Feuding Parents
Informed consent in a changing environment
Empty ethics
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |