Minimally invasive autopsy - navigating uncertainties of death in the Global South
<p>In recent years, global health practitioners and policy-makers have been confronted with the complex challenge of identifying and quantifying the causes of death of the world’s poorest people. In order to address this cause-of-death uncertainty and to minimise longstanding sensitivities and...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2020
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| _version_ | 1797080592891772928 |
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| author | Suwalowska, H |
| author2 | Kingori, P |
| author_facet | Kingori, P Suwalowska, H |
| author_sort | Suwalowska, H |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>In recent years, global health practitioners and policy-makers have been confronted with the complex challenge of identifying and quantifying the causes of death of the world’s poorest people. In order to address this cause-of-death uncertainty and to minimise longstanding sensitivities and reservations about full autopsies in the Global South, funding bodies such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have advocated minimally invasive autopsies (MIA) as an alternative.</p>
<p>MIA is a technology that involves using hollow needles to collect samples from key bodily organs. It has the potential to be more acceptable and less invasive than a full autopsy, which requires opening the cadaver. While the global development and introduction of MIA is growing, little attention has been paid to the ethical implications of its introduction in the Global South.</p>
<p>This DPhil project aimed to provide a greater understanding of the various motivations underlying, barriers to, and debates about the development and implementation of MIA technology in the Global South. These include the various social, ethical, and political implications of this technology.</p>
<p>In this thesis, empirical data that I collected in a range of contexts and countries is used to demonstrate that a core problem exists in current understandings of death in global health. Death is unavoidable; this is certain. However, at global and national levels, persistent uncertainty surrounds the exact numbers of deaths occurring and the causes of these individual deaths. The findings demonstrate the complexities in closing this information gap and shows a plurality of uncertainties underlying and contributing to the above-mentioned issue.</p>
<p>I show that while MIA technology has been introduced as a solution to this enduring cause-of-death uncertainty, the development and deployment of technologies such as these always constitute interventions in complex social and moral worlds, and, in this respect, are both solutions to and causes of new problems. Therefore, MIA inevitably creates new kinds of uncertainties that need to be addressed. I deconstruct the ways in which these different dimensions and levels of uncertainties have been articulated, experienced, and approached, and the ways the uncertainties relate to each other. Finally, I argue that given the radical uncertainty of the future, the full impact of MIA technology is unknown.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T01:02:19Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:8a25c215-e77e-4fb0-83df-5c033cbb676b |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T01:02:19Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:8a25c215-e77e-4fb0-83df-5c033cbb676b2022-03-26T22:29:34ZMinimally invasive autopsy - navigating uncertainties of death in the Global SouthThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:8a25c215-e77e-4fb0-83df-5c033cbb676bBioethicsSociologyEthicsEmpirical researchGlobal health studySocial sciencesScience and technology studiesQualitative researchMedical sociologyEnglishHyrax Deposit2020Suwalowska, HKingori, PParker, MChambers, MAriana, PDouglas-Jones, R<p>In recent years, global health practitioners and policy-makers have been confronted with the complex challenge of identifying and quantifying the causes of death of the world’s poorest people. In order to address this cause-of-death uncertainty and to minimise longstanding sensitivities and reservations about full autopsies in the Global South, funding bodies such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have advocated minimally invasive autopsies (MIA) as an alternative.</p> <p>MIA is a technology that involves using hollow needles to collect samples from key bodily organs. It has the potential to be more acceptable and less invasive than a full autopsy, which requires opening the cadaver. While the global development and introduction of MIA is growing, little attention has been paid to the ethical implications of its introduction in the Global South.</p> <p>This DPhil project aimed to provide a greater understanding of the various motivations underlying, barriers to, and debates about the development and implementation of MIA technology in the Global South. These include the various social, ethical, and political implications of this technology.</p> <p>In this thesis, empirical data that I collected in a range of contexts and countries is used to demonstrate that a core problem exists in current understandings of death in global health. Death is unavoidable; this is certain. However, at global and national levels, persistent uncertainty surrounds the exact numbers of deaths occurring and the causes of these individual deaths. The findings demonstrate the complexities in closing this information gap and shows a plurality of uncertainties underlying and contributing to the above-mentioned issue.</p> <p>I show that while MIA technology has been introduced as a solution to this enduring cause-of-death uncertainty, the development and deployment of technologies such as these always constitute interventions in complex social and moral worlds, and, in this respect, are both solutions to and causes of new problems. Therefore, MIA inevitably creates new kinds of uncertainties that need to be addressed. I deconstruct the ways in which these different dimensions and levels of uncertainties have been articulated, experienced, and approached, and the ways the uncertainties relate to each other. Finally, I argue that given the radical uncertainty of the future, the full impact of MIA technology is unknown.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Bioethics Sociology Ethics Empirical research Global health study Social sciences Science and technology studies Qualitative research Medical sociology Suwalowska, H Minimally invasive autopsy - navigating uncertainties of death in the Global South |
| title | Minimally invasive autopsy - navigating uncertainties of death in the Global South |
| title_full | Minimally invasive autopsy - navigating uncertainties of death in the Global South |
| title_fullStr | Minimally invasive autopsy - navigating uncertainties of death in the Global South |
| title_full_unstemmed | Minimally invasive autopsy - navigating uncertainties of death in the Global South |
| title_short | Minimally invasive autopsy - navigating uncertainties of death in the Global South |
| title_sort | minimally invasive autopsy navigating uncertainties of death in the global south |
| topic | Bioethics Sociology Ethics Empirical research Global health study Social sciences Science and technology studies Qualitative research Medical sociology |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT suwalowskah minimallyinvasiveautopsynavigatinguncertaintiesofdeathintheglobalsouth |