A revealing scandal: The German transplant scandal between structural failures, moralizing rules, and ambivalent manipulations

Introduction

In 2012, the German transplant scandal was uncovered and reported in the national and international media. This article offers an anthropological analysis of the scandal and examines its ‘scandalous’ characteristics by taking a close look at its extraordinary and ordinary features.

Methods

The article is based on ethnographic research using multiple methods including participant observation, interviewing as well as media and document analysis.

Results

The transplant scandal in Germany revealed systemic ‘scandalous’ features of the national transplant system. From a significant lack of transparency in decision making, a weak legal framework for accountability, adherence to moralizing rules about alcohol and abstinence, to media coverage that individualized the scandal.

Conclusions

Looking at extraordinary events such as transplant scandals from an anthropological perspective offers an analysis that goes beyond the singular, scandalous event. An anthropological analysis allows to highlight the ordinary and ambivalent ‘scandalous’ features of transplant medicine It examines transplant medicine at the intersection of biomedicine, politics, and morality.