From the Gift to the String: A Corpus-Based Analysis of Organ Transplantation Metaphors in Japanese Newspapers

Abstract

Beyond being a medical treatment, organ transplantation is a discursive phenomenon whose global principles are reinterpreted locally. Such reinterpretations share the media as a common background and rely on metaphors as a framing device. Amid a long-lasting severe donor shortage, Japan does not constitute an exception in this respect. A corpus-based analysis of the Japanese written press shows that metaphors have played a central role in the normalization of transplant discourse, determining the symbolical weight of organ exchange and the relation developed amongst its direct participants. In this ongoing dialogue, the notion of life has enjoyed a central role, underpinning organ transplantation representations as a possession or as a link, and more concretely as a gift, baton, or string. Particularly, the latter understanding of life as a string has been gaining relevance over the last few years through the expression ‘connecting life’, which depicts organ transplantation as a way of tying together the donor and recipient’s lives. The image of the string roots organ transplantation in a rather culturally and religious entrenched conception of life, enabling a local interpretation of the ethical implications derived from transplant therapy, which has over many years been critically debated within Japanese society.