Disciplining death: hypertension management and the production of mortal subjectivities (original) (raw)
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A 'revival of death' in medical settings
Sociologist of death, Tony Walter, argues that the contemporary wester society is experiencing a 'revival of death' . This essay is interested in the applicability of this theory in the medical field of practice. How does the 'revival' affect doctors' practice and attitudes concerning death? For a more in-depth understanding of the subject, an analysis of the manner in which death is managed, understood and talked about is in order. First, the essay will observe practices concerning the handling of the dead bodies by nurses and by medical examiners. Second, it will analyse the consequences of the rise of certain movements, in particular the hospice and Physician Assisted Suicide. In the final analysis, the essay will examine three case studies concerning patient-doctor interaction and the expectations of each concerning the handling of life or death situations. PAGE 3
Contemporary Medicalization and the Ethics of Death and Dying
Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics, 12(2), 29–36., 2021
This paper argues that contemporary medicalization is one of the reasons why death and dying should be considered as ethical issues. First, two distinct features regarding death and dying can be analysed by comparing ‘tamed death’ and ‘death untamed’. The distinction between death in Ars Moriendi and death as deprivationism has been compared before deducing a conclusion that biomedical ethics is an indispensable tool today to deal with the morality of death and dying. This issue is significant to articulate the relationship between the ethics of death and dying and the historical and cultural understanding of death and dying.
After Death/After-'Life': The Social History of Medicine in Post-Postmodernity
Social History of Medicine, 2007
Well supported and institutionalised, the social history of medicine thrives. Its research agenda is infinitely expandable, and its humanist sentiments continue to touch emotional cords. Politically and intellectually, however, it is sterile. In a material and intellectual world that is radically different from the one in which it came into being, the social history of medicine has lost its capacity seriously to engage. This paper suggests that medico-centric historians not only have the expertise to re-engage with the contemporary bio-centric world, but that they have need to do so, and, moreover, every reason to take to the task enthusiastically. Crucial to moving on is understanding and seriously engaging with the moral-political and epistemological landscapes for medicine and its historiography, past and present.
CARDAN E&V, Death and Medicine, 2016 This book consists of 21 chapters dealing with the entire series of important peri-mortem issues; it is neither a handbook nor a simple lecture, but a compendium of general medical knowledge on death. Beyond a couple of short introductory chapters examining the various ways of dying and their semiotics, a good part of the text considers a range of pathologies in terms of their causal relationship to death. The first of these takes a detailed look at medical conditions of interest to intensive care units, including cardiac arrest and resuscitation, chemical pneumonia, malignant hyperthermia, drowning, and electrocution. Smoking, alcoholism, and irradiation disease come next, whereas the remaining pathologic entities are ‘allocated’ a place according to how and when they fatally interfere with the course of life. As medicine today is no longer rigidly opposed to death, the book addresses the role modern medicine can play, on one hand, in generating organs for transplantation, and on the other hand, in engaging in society’s approach to euthanasia and – when useful – developing strategies to ease the process of dying. It is here that Dr J. Kevorkian’s contribution and Dignitas Clinic from Zürich are considered. In addition to medical issues proper, the text also approaches several historical aspects of death, such as mummification, pandemics, the Crusades, the use of cadaveric blood, and the death penalty in its many notorious versions, including crucifixion and the guillotine. A few short chapters are devoted to a number of postmortem matters, including autopsy, forensics, classic preservation and cryonics, cremation, and spontaneous decomposition, as well as the use of cadavers for teaching purposes, with Prof. von Hagens’ achievements. Since embalming is not currently addressed in medical materials, it is also discussed, along with – in the interest of thoroughness – contemporary taxidermy. Finally, ethical concerns and a possible correlation between near-death experiences and paranormal phenomena are also given their due attention. The 397-page text, supported by a list of 317 references and a thematic index, is firmly grounded in scientific and academic rigour. Its essayistic narration, some personal reflections in response to a selection of aphorisms, as well as several art reproductions, combine to strike a tone that is both accessible and memorable. Efforts have been made by the publisher to offer a book that is easily readable. With a friendly graphic, and a robust physical structure, the volume remains open throughout, both figuratively and in the proper sense of the word.
Life Extension, Immortality and the Patient Voice
Chapter in THE POWER OF DEATH: Contemporary Reflections on Death in Western Society Edited by Maria-José Blanco and Ricarda Vidal. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. October 2014. ISBN 978-1-78238-433-5
Enacting death in the intensive care unit: medical technology and the multiple ontologies of death
Health:, 2009
This article explores various ways health personnel enact death in connection with mechanical ventilation treatment withdrawal in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Trondheim University Hospital. The main focus is on sedated terminal patients who undergo mechanical ventilator treatment withdrawal and relatives' presence at this time. Mol's (2002) praxiographic orientation of the actor-network approach is followed while exploring this medical practice. Utilizing this interdisciplinary science and technology studies approach this article describes what Timmermans and Berg (2003) have called ' technology-in-practice'. Thus the main focus of the analysis is on medical interventions, and enactments of death within medical practice. The article argues against a 'social essentialist' approach to medical technology, which views technology as a passive force empowered by social relations. It explores how various enactments of death are intrinsically linked with and shaped by the use of medical technology within clinical practice. A praxiographic inquiry into how death is enacted carefully takes notice of how medical practice and techniques make death audible, tangible, visible, knowable and real. Mol's praxiographic approach also enables a description of how the multiple enactments of death connect within end-of-life care through various forms of coordination. This article is based on interviews with 28 nurses and two physicians in a Norwegian intensive care unit.
In this workshop, we will address the medicalisation of the end of life through a social sciences lens. We are interested both in zooming in on the social and moral dynamics taking place at the bedside, and taking a broader view of institutional and political frameworks. We invite contributions based on empirical data that explore the occasionally contradictory and paradoxical systems, practices, and politics in the medicalisation of death and dying. To foster collective discussion, Prof Sharon R. Kaufman (Professor Emerita, Medical Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco) will give a keynote lecture during this workshop. The workshop will be held at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) on 13 and 14 September 2018. Deadline for abstracts is 21 June 2018.
The Ethics of Dying: making sense of our demise
My essay explores the reasons why we try to prolong life in our highly technological age. Prolongation of life is symptomatic of our unease with death as a positive event. I have drawn on remarks made by ancient philosophers and Chinese sages to alert us to what is remarkable about death. We hear from Socrates, Boethius, and others such as Walter Benjamin and Simone Weil in their attempt to alert us to the 'value' of death. The essay is seen through the eyes of my own experience with the passing of an old Aborigine that I once knew, and how his death figured as a positive event for all concerned, including himself. The re-disovery of an ethics of dying is paramount if we are to arrest our reliance on overburdened health budgets and the technologization of death. Hopefully this essay will provoke some debate.