ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION FROM AGES AND INFORMING STRATEGIES POINT OF VIEW

Authors

  • Cristina ; GAVRILUȚĂ Postdoctoral researcher "Gr.T. Popa" University, Iasi, Romania; Associate Professor Departament of Sociology and Social Work, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University, Iasi, Carol I, 11, 700506
  • Beatrice Gabriela IOAN Associate Professor, University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Gr. T. Popa" Iaşi

Keywords:

transplant, social representations, intergenerational representations, politics of health

Abstract

The issue of transplant of organs is one that interests both the medical science, as well as the social one. The premises from which we begin are those that there is a deficit of information at the level of population (especially for certain age categories) in what regards the transplant and that many of the attitudes and representations of the inhabitants of Iasi regarding this subject are marked by traditional practices and representations of body, illness and death. The research benefits of a double methodological perspective: a qualitative one (the analysis of articles regarding the transplant from the Romanian press during one year) and the second one, the quantitative one (questioning a sample of 1120 persons from Iasi and the statistic analysis of answers according to the age of respondents). The results of the quantitative research and of the qualitative one can be thus synthesized: the journalistic language (re)produces, in our opinion, modern versions of some mythical-symbolical images and representations by using a double language (a specialized one and one accessible for the public); the attitudes and representations of the population from Iasi regarding the transplant can be characterized as being reserved and moderate, expressing, in fact, a form of ignorance and an insufficient information. In conclusion, we can say that our demarche has highlighted gaps in the information of population, no matter the age, in what regards the theme of transplant. The construction of articles, as well as the answers of the questioned persons, is rather in the area of a mythical-symbolical thinking. All these results and interpretations have built the premises of a pleading in favor of a correct education and information in order to generate rational, completely aware, choices and attitudes.

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