Mastering Dying: Understanding End-of-Life Care as a Cultural Practice through Policy

The perceived universality of death can obscure the variability in how the processes of becoming dead – such as dying – are culturally understood and constructed. This chapter will discuss how a particular way of dying, framed as ‘end of life care’, shapes expectations and practices in the last year, months and days of life. Based on ethnographic research in England, this chapter will outline how policy around the end of life influences perceptions and practices around dying persons. This includ