Presentation Title: “A Qualitative Exploration and Ethical Analysis of Gender Disparity in Living Kidney Donation for Transplantation in Bangladesh”

Abstract:

Solid kidneys are the primary source of organs for transplantation in Bangladesh. Patients with end-stage renal failure obtaining transplantation rely mainly on kidneys procured from living-related donors in Bangladesh. However, many more women than men serve as living kidney donors for transplantation in Bangladesh. It is, therefore, ethically important to explore why more women than men function as living kidney donors for transplantation in Bangladesh. Aside from participant observation and informal discussion, I mainly used a qualitative face-to-face interview method to collect practical shreds of evidence from 40 key stakeholders including health administrator, transplant physicians, nurses, organ donors and recipients, and family members at the major kidney transplant hospitals located in the Capital City of Bangladesh. My ethnography reveals that women volunteer themselves as potential living kidney donors because they are perceived primarily to be caregivers within families. Women perceive living without husbands as critical for themselves: this might encourage women into donating kidneys to save the lives of their spouses. Motherly attitudes or biological features and strong family bonds might also encourage women to donate kidneys to their children and other kin relatives. Women may not often resist as easily even if they are urged to be potential donors for transplantation. This leads to the conclusion that women's decisions to donate kidneys are perceived to be grounded in particular socio-economic realities, familial structure, cultural ethos, kinship relations, and collective biomedical perspective. This study suggests that healthcare professionals should carefully follow clinical guidelines and ensure adequate protection of particularly vulnerable potential kidney donors for ethical organ procurement and transplantation. Encouraging male donors to donate organs ethically for transplantation can also be a suggested measure that may ensure improved healthcare outcomes for Bangladeshis.