Dying: A Social Perspective on the End of Life

197 Pages·2015·1.382 MB·English

by  Alex Broom

Dying: A SociAl PerSPective
on the enD of life
For Sarah
Dying: A Social Perspective
on the End of Life
Alex Broom
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
© Alex Broom 2015
All rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy-
ing, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Alex Broom has asserted his right under the copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing limited Ashgate Publishing company
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Union road Suite 3-1
farnham Burlington, vt 05401-3818
Surrey, gU9 7Pt USA
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Broom, Alex.
Dying : a social perspective on the end of life / by Alex Broom.
pages cm
includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4094-5373-4 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-4094-5374-1 (ebook) –
ISBN 978-1-4724-0702-3 (epub) 1. Death – Social aspects. 2. Death –
Psychological aspects. 3. Bereavement. i. title.
hQ1073.B76 2015
306.9–dc23
ISBN 9781409453734 (hbk)
ISBN 9781409453741 (ebk – PDF)
ISBN 9781472407023 (ebk – ePUB)
Printed in the United Kingdom by henry ling limited,
at the Dorset Press, Dorchester, Dt1 1hD
Contents
List of Abbreviations vii
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction 1
2 Time to Die? Breaking the News of Futility and the End of Life 21
3 A Place for Dying 39
4 The Moralities and Politics of Dying in a Hospice 57
5 Families and Dying 75
6 Nursing the Dying 91
7 Dying, Healing and Survivorship 109
8 Gender and the Moralities of Dying 125
9 The Dying Body 141
10 Conclusion 155
References 161
Index 183
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List of Abbreviations
AMA Australian Medical Association
BMA British Medical Association
CAM Complementary and Alternative Medicine
CPG Clinical Practice Guidelines
EBHC Evidence based healthcare
EBM Evidence based medicine
EBP Evidence based practice
GP General Practitioner
NHS National Health Service
WHO World Health Organization
YIMP Years in medical practice
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Acknowledgements
This book was supported by funding from the Australian Research Council
(ARC), namely, an ARC Future Fellowship (FT100100294) and an ARC Linkage
Grant (LP120200268). Without this funding the writing of this book would not
have been possible. I acknowledge the support of Assa Doron and Damien
Ridge in commenting on various chapter drafts. Thanks to Suvena Sethi, for
your constant support throughout the entire process of writing the manuscript.
I’d like to thank Sarah, Jen, Alison and Brian for being lifelong sources of
encouragement and support. Colleagues who contributed significantly to the
broader program of research, which I often draw on implicitly or explicitly in
this book, include Emma Kirby, Jon Adams, Phillip Good and Julia Wootton,
Janet Hardy and Patsy Yates. Finally, to the participants in the studies I draw on
here, I thank you once again for giving your valuable (and often limited) time to
assist in developing the ideas presented in the following pages.
I note that some parts of particular chapters in this book draw from previously
published material and thus the following acknowledges these works. Parts of
Chapter 2 were originally published in Social Science & Medicine, 2013, 78(1): 9–16,
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.11.008. Parts of Chapter 3 were originally
published in Health, 2011, 15(1): 96–111, DOI: 10.1177/1363459309360797.
Parts of Chapter 4 were originally published in Qualitative Health Research, 2012,
22(2): 226–37, DOI: 10.1177/1049732311421181. Parts of Chapter 5 were
originally published in the Sociology of Health and Illness, 2013, 35(4): 499–513.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2012.01497.x. Parts of Chapter 6 were originally
published in Qualitative Health Research, 2014, DOI: 1049732314553123. Parts
of Chapter 8 were originally published in Social Science & Medicine, 2010, 71(5):
869–76. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.05.026.