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Maintaining Life on Kidney Dialysis: Everyday Experience in Japan

Speaker
Amy Borovoy
Date
Mon February 3rd 2025, 12:30 - 1:20pm
Location
Building 50, Room 51A

The talk explores the way in which advanced medical technologies change the way we imagine the norms of a healthy life, life expectancy, and the limits of the body. What does it mean to live in suspended time? And what are the limits of demanding forms of chronic care which cannot cure? Anthropologists have a role to play in addressing these questions through their focus on everyday life. I focus on kidney dialysis, a therapeutic treatment which filters excess fluids, minerals, or toxins from the blood. Once kidneys fail, there is no cure. However, for patients who do not receive a transplant, there is dialysis, a demanding, continual medical intervention. I explore dialysis “success,” proficiency, and patient compliance in Japan. This also raises questions. What is the value of life on dialysis and what is the meaning of “patient-centered care” in the context of an algorithmic therapy which focuses on day-to-day progress calibrated through metrics of “dry weight” and “time-on-machine”?