The televisual framing of organ transplantations in France, from the 1960s to the 1980s
The televisual framing of organ transplantations in France, from the 1960s to the 1980s

Summary/Abstract: Since the first successful human organ transplants of the late 1960s, television in France hasrepresented a means of publicizing and then popularizing a surgical operation that is not selfevidentin scientific terms or in terms of social acceptance. This paper intends to show howthe televisual narrative on organ transplant in France has been constructed through time andhow contextual elements may have affected it in the 1960s up to the 1980s. It describes the fourperiods that organ transplant went through on screen. It then focuses on the main “actors” ofthe French televisual narrative: the surgeon, the patient, the donor and, later on, the organs,and the part they played in the construction of a public image of organ transplantation. Theconclusion shows that these elements are stable over time and underlines the shortcomingsof this televisual narrative. The research is part of the ERC programme “The healthy self asbody capital: Individuals, market-based societies and body politic in visual twentieth centuryEurope” (https://bodycapital.unistra.fr/), and is based on an analysis of the archives of theInstitut national de l’audiovisuel (INA).

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