The Sociology of End-of-Life Care and the Right to Die.

The article takes a sociological look at end of life care, examininghow death, dying and grief are caused by politics and culture. The Sociologyof End-of-Life Care is less than two decades old, as the field that studiesdying with dignity, the medicalization of death, hospice, in home care, andinstitutional care evolve. The history of the right-to-die advocacy movementin the US documents a shifting public discourse: from refusal of treatment,ultimately the right to request a physician-administered death in cases ofterminal illness. This article analyses social movements that shape and contest access to deathwith dignity as well as the neoliberal framing of the right to die. It arguesthat dying has become more privatized, medicalized and technologized,exiling it from the cultural, communal and spiritual dimensions of loss. Thereare worries about one-size-fits-all models of end-of-life care because theymay complicate things for patients, families and communities.In the end, the paper shows that we must attend to the meanings of a “gooddeath”, dignity at dying and family closure. But we must pay more attentionto social equity in health policy design.