Developing practical ethics of care for the dead and bereaved: learning from the ways COVID-19 disrupted and reshaped funeral provision

当COVID-19感染控制政策限制了如何以及由谁来照顾尸体并将其转移到埋葬/火葬地点时，英国的葬礼服务受到严重干扰；葬礼承办人和司仪如何与死者家属沟通；以及葬礼、哀悼和纪念活动的可能性。这些规定产生了巨大的痛苦和不公正的感觉。它们还促进了新的丧葬习俗的发展——引发了有关丧葬服务的重要问题。我们的跨学科研究从认识到丧葬服务是一种面向死者及其亲人、朋友和社区的护理形式（和一套护理实践）开始。它解决了葬礼服务中被忽视的伦理问题，包括在2019冠状病毒病的背景下，公平问题以及家庭成员和殡仪馆馆长担心没有履行重要责任或对死者或丧亲之人做错事情所带来的痛苦的道德层面。我们的伦理分析将基于对变化的实践和经验的民族志研究，其中包括：(1)对丧葬文物的分析，包括在线电影、致敬页面和书面记录；(2)采访不同类型的丧亲家庭成员、殡葬承办人和司仪。我们将仔细关注人们在不同情况下认为什么是好的和正确的（或不正确的），以及为什么。我们将对死后护理进行实际的伦理分析，以解决葬礼的不同目的和对死后责任的不同观点之间的紧张关系。与主要利益相关者的讨论活动将为未来政策和实践的资源开发提供信息。

Funeral provision in the UK was significantly disrupted when COVID-19 infection control policies constrained how and by whom bodies could be attended to and moved to burial/cremation sites; how funeral directors and celebrants could communicate with bereaved families; and possibilities for gathering for funerals, mourning and memorialising activities. The regulations generated significant distress and perceptions of injustice. They also prompted the development of new funeral practices - inviting important questions about funeral provision. Our interdisciplinary research starts from a recognition of funeral provision as a form of care (and set of caring practices) oriented towards people who have died and their bereaved family, friends and communities. It addresses neglected ethical aspects of funeral provision, including, in the context of COVID-19, questions of fairness and the moral dimensions of distress evident in family members' and funeral directors' worries about not fulfilling important responsibilities, or doing wrong, to those who have died or been bereaved. Our ethical analyses will be grounded in an ethnographic examination of changed practices and experiences that includes:(1) analysis of funeral artefacts, including online films, tribute pages, and written accounts; (2) interviews with diverse bereaved family members, funeral directors and celebrants. We will attend carefully to what people consider good and right (or not) and why in different circumstances. We will develop practical ethical analyses of post-death care that address tensions between different purposes of funerals and diverse perspectives on post-death responsibilities. Discussion events with key stakeholders will inform the development of resources for future policy and practice.