Mortal Dilemmas: The Troubled Landscape of Death in America

150 Pages·2016·1.254 MB·English

by  Donald Joralemon

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Mortal Dilemmas
The Troubled Landscape
of Death in America
Donald Joralemon
Walnut Creek, California
LEFT COAST PRESS, INC.
1630 North Main Street, #400
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
www.LCoastPress.com
Copyright © 2016 by Left Coast Press, Inc.
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, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN 978-1-62958-392-1 hardback
ISBN 978-1-62958-393-8 paperback
ISBN 978-1-62958-394-5 institutional eBook
ISBN 978-1-62958-395-2 consumer eBook
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Joralemon, Donald.
Title: Mortal dilemmas : the troubled landscape of death in America / Donald Joralemon.
Description: Walnut Creek, CA : Left Coast Press, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015035205| ISBN 9781629583921 (hardback) | ISBN 9781629583938
(paperback) | ISBN 9781629583945 (institutional ebook) | ISBN 9781629583952 (consumer
eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: Death—Social aspects—United States. | Grief—Social aspects—United
States. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / General. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Death & Dying. | SOCIAL
SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural.
Classification: LCC HQ1073.5.U6 J67 2016 | DDC 306.90973—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.—loc.gov/2015035205
Printed in the United States of America
∞™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992.
Contents
Acknowledgments 9
Prologue: My First Corpse 11
Chapter 1: A Culturally Naked Death? 15
Chapter 2: Deciding to Die 27
Chapter 3: Liminal People, Hard Decisions 39
Chapter 4: Dead? 59
Interlude: Reflections on Dying Dilemmas 75
Chapter 5: Grief: Is It Complicated? 81
Chapter 6: Inconvenient Bodies 95
Chapter 7: Remember 109
Chapter 8: Dying and Death in America: The Prognosis 123
Notes 135
References 139
Index 145
About the Author 149

List of Abbreviations
ANH: artificial nutrition and hydration
DNR: do not resuscitate order
DSM: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association
DOI: Department of the Interior, United States
ICD: International Classification of Disease, World Health Organization
MDD: major depressive disorder
NAGPRA: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
PAD: physician-assisted death
PEG: percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy
PCBD: persistent complex bereavement disorder
PGD: prolonged grief disorder
PVS: permanent or persistent vegetative state
UDDA: Uniform Death Determination Act
UNOS: United Network for Organ Sharing
VS: vegetative state

Acknowledgments
Friends, colleagues, and students deserve recognition for helping me with this
project. Reyes Lazaro suggested the main title, Christina Staudt read and com-
mented on an earlier draft and invited me to talk to the Columbia University
Seminar on Death, Dr. Audrey Pendleton provided a physician’s view on an earlier
draft, George Dickenson provided especially helpful observations, and many online
readers contributed useful ideas. I have had able research assistance from several
Smith College students: Katherine Russell, Chloe Vaughn, Victoria von Saucken,
Ana Sofia Moreno-Mesa, and Katilyn Marasi.
Parts of Chapter 1 appeared in a previously published article, “Dying While
Living: The Problem of Social Death,” in Staudt and Ellens (2014).
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