Invitation to publish your story about living donation

[egordon]

Hi all,

My name is Elisa Gordon and I am a social scientist putting together a special issue of the journal, Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics on living donation. Too little is known about the experiences of living donors. So my goal is to help potential donors and clinicians in the future to better understand the range of concerns and issues that donors encounter.
 
I am writing to invite living donors to submit their stories of donating for publication in the journal.

The guidelines for submitting a story can be found at the journal website:
http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/narrative_inquiry_in_bioethics/guidelines.html

Thank you in advance!

I look forward to receiving your stories.

Best wishes,
Elisa Gordon

[Sarah in Maine]

Thanks for sharing this opportunity, Elisa. 

Do you have any "prompt" questions that you are hoping the personal narratives will address? There are at least a zillion areas on which I could focus or tailor my one personal story. 

Also, I hope you will be sure to include stories from donors with physical or mental complications from the donation, not just those with more positive experiences. 

--Sarah

[PhilHoover]

thanks for the invitation.

[egordon]

Thank you both for your interest in contributing to this journal. I am most grateful for the opportunity to share your important donation experiences through putting together this journal.

Here is a bit more information that may help you as you consider preparing your narrative. First, I recommend that you take a look at the guidelines. The guidelines can be found at:
http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/narrative_inquiry_in_bioethics/NIB_Call_LivingOrganDonation.pdf

In the guidelines you'll see a set of topic areas that are of great interest to consider writing about. This set of topics is by no means limited, and you're welcome to write about other meaningful issues.

Also, please write your initial summary statement in as much detail as possible. Stories that are more likely to be accepted into the issue are those that can convey a message or key point/or points about the donation experience (either before, during or after). So describing the experience of donation and what was or is meaningful to you (whether good or bad) would be helpful.

I am accepting summaries now so that I can offer feedback, if necessary, on what issues to expand upon. Thereafter receiving the summary or revision(s) of the summary, I will let contributors know whether to write the full story.
The full story is due June 15th. After I receive the full story I'll make the final decisions about which to include in the jouranl about 2 weeks later. Although we can publish 10-12 or so in print, we will have more stories to print online.
 
Thank you again! I look forward to seeing your stories! Best, Elisa.

[Cynthia]

Hi Elisa,

Thank you for providing this wonderful opportunity.

I am a doctoral candidate and some what familiar with narrative inquiry as a qualitative research methodology.

I would be delighted to tell my story as a non-directed living donor.  I have been seeking an opportunity to publish something about my donation experience.

When do you need the initial summary statement by?

Thank you and nice to "meet" you,

Cynthia Tindongan
ctindongan@yahoo.com

[valentine]

I also would be interested in telling my kidney donation story. Mine took place in 1988 and was donated to my then 14-year-old daughter. She passed away in 2009.
Summaries you are accepting:  just a brief little story kind of outlining the donation time and what has happened since?

[Cynthia]

Unfortunately, my narrative was turned down for this special edition.

I'm really disappointed.

I hope others have better luck!

[sherri]

Cynthia,

Sorry to hear your story was turned down. Hard to know what they are looking for. Did you submit to the journal or to the person who advertised on here? I was also thinking of submitting. I am trying to focus on just a few of the aspects of my donation and not sure how to write it.

Sherri

[Cynthia]

Yes. I did submit it through the above posting.

If you click on the link you'll get clear guidelines on what to do and how to approach your narrative.

You may want to check first, though, to see if the journal is still accepting submissions.

[lawphi]

I am actually donating at John Hopkins on June 20th, if anyone from the journal would be interested in participating in the process and observing first hand. 

I am part of a paired donation chain.  I also wrote an unpublishable law review article regarding religious issues/discrimination in organ donation and economics of living donation.   

[sherri]

I donated at Hopkins 3 1/2 years ago. If you would like a visitor I'd be happy to welcome you to the club personally. you can email me at spbauman@gmail.com

Best of luck,

Sherri

[egordon]

Hi all,

Yes, we are still accepting submissions. Please note: The deadline is quickly approaching (June 15, 2011). If you are interested, please submit your brief inquiry asap to the editor (see address below) and/or to Elisa Gordon at e-gordon@northwestern.edu

Our goal is to include a broad range of experiences about living donation. We have received many stories about non-directed donation (also referred to as "altruistic donation" even though all donation is altruistic!). So that is why we had to turn some stories down, unfortunately, due to space limitations. So, I'd like to include other stories (that are directed donations).

I have not received any stories from liver donors and would love to include some if possible. But if you have a living kidney donor story to tell, please do consider submitting it. Also, it really helps to submit a brief 300 word summary to the editor at:
 narrativebioethics@gmail.com and we'll respond with more guidance. 

The guidelines for submitting the story can be obtained by going to the link as follows:
http://www.press.jhu.edu/ journals/narrative_inquiry_in_bioethics/guidelines.html

Thank you all for your interest! Best wishes, Elisa Gordon