Social Science and Medicine, 71(5), September 2010, pp.869-876.
Publisher:
Elsevier
... of death and dying and their experiences of being cared for. A number of themes emerged: tensions around what constitutes ‘the good death’; dying and caring as moral practice; and, the centrality of gender identity and relations in shaping experiences of dying and caring. They argue for a sociological approach to death and dying that better elucidates the interplay of identity, morality and relationality
Despite the increasingly important role of hospices in end of life care in Australia and internationally, the in-patient hospice experience has received relatively little attention from sociologists. The authors examine the perspectives of 11 male and 9 female in-patients in the last few weeks of their lives. Through a series of qualitative in-depth interviews, they explore their conceptions of death and dying and their experiences of being cared for. A number of themes emerged: tensions around what constitutes ‘the good death’; dying and caring as moral practice; and, the centrality of gender identity and relations in shaping experiences of dying and caring. They argue for a sociological approach to death and dying that better elucidates the interplay of identity, morality and relationality at the end of life.
Subject terms:
hospices, self-concept, terminal illness, user views, dying, end of life care, gender;