Final days : Japanese culture and choice at the end of life

著者

書誌事項

Final days : Japanese culture and choice at the end of life

Susan Orpett Long

University of Hawaiʿi Press, c2005

  • : hardcover
  • : pbk

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注記

Includes bibliographical references (p. [251]-278) and index

内容説明・目次

巻冊次

: hardcover ISBN 9780824829100

内容説明

In postindustrial societies, people must consciously define their individuality through the choices they make. Recently, death has become yet another realm of personal choice, as well as an occasional arena for political debate, making a "good death" one in which we die in our "own way." Does culture matter in these decisions? "Final Days" represents a new perspective on end-of-life decision-making, arguing that culture does make a difference but not as a checklist of customs or as the source of a moral code. The final stage of life is as rooted as any other in political and economic constraints and social relationships. Policy, technology, and institutions - as well as biology - set limits on what is possible, defining the set of options from which people choose. Culture provides a vocabulary of words, metaphors, and images that can be drawn on to interpret experiences and create a sense of what it means to die well. Grounded in rich ethnographic data, the book offers a superb examination of how policy and meaning frame the choices Japanese make about how to die. As an essay in descriptive bioethics, it engages an extensive literature in the social sciences and bioethics to examine some of the answers people have constructed to end-of-life issues. Through interviews and case studies in hospitals and homes, Susan Orpett Long offers a window on the ways in which "ordinary" people respond to serious illness and the process of dying.
巻冊次

: pbk ISBN 9780824829643

内容説明

Long (anthropology, John Carroll U., Cleveland) spent over a decade investigating the social and cultural nature of end-of-life decisions in Japan, the nation with the world's longest life expectancies and a distinctly postindustrial pattern of causes of death. Her ethnography of the final days of life considers bioethical issues such as the words, metaphors, and narratives ordinary people draw on in thinking about what constitutes "a good death"; who makes decisions about a dying patient; the use of high-tech treatments at the end of life; debates about brain death and organ transplantation; and ways of dealing with dying, from hospices to euthanasia. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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