The readiness is all: ways people anticipate dying in the U.K.

我的研究分析了人们在预期死亡时寻求权利和承认的方式。英国人现在比以往任何时候都活得更长，但往往处于脆弱的健康状态，这影响了他们对死亡的预期。虽然一些作者已经讨论了英国人对待死亡的不同方式(Kelleshire 2007，Seale 1998，Walter 1994等)，但到目前为止，还没有人使用人类学方法来比较发生这种死亡预期的不同公共领域(地理、法律、话语)，或者实际上，将其与更广泛的理论方法相关联，以见证(Agamben 1999；Felman and Laub 1992)和认识(Honneth 1995；Taylor 1992)。我的研究关注的公共领域包括：“死亡权”辩论(以及支持这场辩论的大声疾呼的“支持者”和“反对者”)；规范人们“死亡决定”的法律；以及临终关怀日间中心。这项研究的理论贡献表明，这三个社会过程(法律、激进主义和艺术)都旨在提供一种形式的公共认可，承认一个人在对待死亡的方法中的人格，无视英国关于死亡的公开禁忌(Aries 1975，Elias 1985，Gorer 1965)。我的许多研究参与者的压倒性愿望是获得对他们死亡的特殊性的认可；这涉及将他们的生活开放给公众监督，无论是来自日间中心的其他患者还是来自上议院的五名法官。公开宣布死亡确认包含许多风险，尤其是对可以确认的内容产生了不切实际的期望。我概述了许多情况，承认失败恰恰是因为我们生活(和死亡)的某些方面太私密、太情绪化、太不确定，无法以人们可能希望的方式公开承认。除了这些理论贡献外，我的研究还突出了人种学工作对生物伦理学和法律中有争议和高度分裂的辩论--在我的案例中--“死亡权”辩论--的重要方法论贡献。总而言之，这项研究追求四个目标：第一，通过对不同外部形式(法律、激进主义和艺术)的依恋，提供不同群体如何预期死亡的分析和实证调查。第二，揭示那些希望在英国将一种医学加速死亡形式合法化的人的信仰和动机，特别是那些打算前往瑞士迪格尼塔斯寻求死亡帮助的人。第三，通过定位于不同学科(死亡研究、社会老年学、医学人类学、社会法律研究、生物伦理学)的结合点，推动对临终问题的跨学科讨论。第四，将我原创和及时的研究结果反馈给从事临终问题的政策制定者、利益相关者和医疗从业者。我将常驻谢菲尔德大学社会学系，在洛娜·沃伦博士的指导下工作，目前我与她一起参与了E.S.R.C资助的代表自我：代表老龄化项目(新老龄化动态计划)。其他支持将来自诺丁汉大学苏·莱德临终关怀中心的简·西摩教授。我将在英国进行有限的额外研究，以便获得进一步的见解，从而丰富我打算撰写的期刊文章。我将发表5篇文章，在会议(一次国际会议)上发表论文，并在诺丁汉大学(我将在那里工作)、谢菲尔德大学护理系和巴斯大学死亡与社会中心的临终研究人员之间建立广泛的网络。

My research analyses the ways in which people seek rights and recognition in anticipation of their death. People in the U.K. now live longer than ever before but often in a fragile state of health which affects the ways in which they anticipate their death. While a number of authors have discussed the different ways in which people in the U.K. approach dying (Kellehear 2007, Seale 1998, Walter 1994 etc.), none have so far used anthropological methods to compare different public arenas (geographical, legal, discursive) where this anticipation of death occurs, or indeed, related it to broader theoretical approaches to witnessing (Agamben 1999; Felman and Laub 1992) and recognition (Honneth 1995; Taylor 1992). The public arenas that my research focuses on are: the 'right-to-die' debate (and the vociferous 'pro' and 'anti' campaigners who sustain the debate); the laws which regulate people's 'death decisions'; and a hospice day centre. The theoretical contribution of this research shows that all three social processes (law, activism and art) purport to offer a form of public recognition of an individual's personhood in their approach to death, in defiance of the well documented public taboo on death in the U.K (Aries 1975, Elias 1985, Gorer 1965). The overwhelming desire of many of my research participants was to gain recognition for the particularity of their deaths; which involved opening up their life to public scrutiny, whether from fellow day-centre patients or from five judges in the House of Lords. Making public claims for recognition-in-dying contained many risks, not least creating unrealistic expectations of what can be recognised. I outline a number of occasions when recognition fails precisely because some aspects of our lives (and deaths) are just too private, too emotional, and too uncertain to be publicly recognised in the way that people might wish them to be. In addition to these theoretical contributions, my research highlights the vital methodological contribution which ethnographic work can make to controversial and highly divisive debates in bioethics and law - in my case, the 'right-to-die' debate. In summary, this research pursues four objectives:First, to offer an analytical and empirical investigation of how different groups anticipate dying by trying to shore up their personhood through attachment to different external forms (law, activism and art).Second, to shed light on the beliefs and motivations of people who want to legalise a form of medically hastened death in the U.K. and in particular those who are intending to travel to Dignitas in Switzerland for help to die. Third, to advance inter-disciplinary discussion of end-of-life issues through positioning myself at the nexus of different sub-disciplines (death studies, social gerontology, medical anthropology, socio-legal studies, bio-ethics).Fourth, to feed back the results of my original and timely research to policy-makers, stakeholders and healthcare practitioners working on end-of-life issues. I will be based in the Department of Sociological Studies (Sheffield University) under the guidance of Dr. Lorna Warren with whom I currently work on the E.S.R.C funded Representing Self: Representing Ageing project (New Dynamics of Ageing programme).Additional support will come from Professor Jane Seymour at the Sue Ryder Care Centre for Palliative and End of Life Studies at Nottingham University. I will conduct limited additional research in the U.K. in order to be gain further insights which will enrich the journal articles I intend to write. I will publish 5 articles, deliver papers at conferences (one international), and network extensively among end of life researchers based at the University of Nottingham (where I will be affiliated); the Department of Nursing at the University of Sheffield; and the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath.