Dying as a social relationship: A sociological review of debates on the determination of death

Allan Kellehear*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

62 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The research literature about ‘brain death’ is largely characterized by biomedical, bioethical and legal writing. This has led to overlooking wider but no less pertinent social, historical and cultural understandings about death. By ignoring the work of other social and clinical colleagues in the study of dying, the literature on the determination of death has become unnecessarily abstract and socially disconnected from parallel concerns about death and dying. This has led, and continues to lead to, incomplete suggestions and narrow discussions about the nature of death as well as an ongoing misunderstanding of general public and health care staff responses to brain death criteria. This paper provides a sociological outline of these problems through a review of the key literature on the determination of death.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1533-1544
Number of pages12
JournalSocial Science and Medicine
Volume66
Issue number7
Early online date28 Jan 2008
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2008
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Brain death
  • dying
  • social factors
  • culture
  • end-of-life care
  • review

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