Based on 20 months fieldwork in Danish Neuro-Intensive Care Units, this paper explores the interactions between health professionals, families and anthropologist. The paper will examine how to gain and remain access to these highly sensitive medical settings and discuss the emotional consequences of practicing anthropology in the presence of sudden tragic deaths.
Observing organ donation practices and family conversations on organ donation entails 3 being available 24/7 ready to travel to the hospital whenever such cases happen. The unpredictability of such research endeavors challenges the boundaries between work and private life for the anthropologist but simultaneously provides insight in the working conditions of donation professionals.
Participant observation during organ donation conversations also necessitates sincere ethical considerations since the true agenda of the observing anthropologist could not be revealed to families still hoping for the survival of their loved one. The paper will discuss how to navigate such difficult ethical terrains using your informants, in this case doctors, nurses and donor families as advisors. Inspired by these premises for researching death regarding organ donation, the paper will also discuss the analytical potential in the particular ethical circumstances of a field site and the careful timing andstrategic delivery of information performed by health professionals in these particularmedical settings.
Finally the paper also discusses how the outsider position of the anthropologist and the personal vulnerability of the researcher are one of the most powerful tools for investigating death issues when daring to share such emotions with your informants and your colleagues.