Managing Bodies, Managing Persons: Postmortem Care and the Role of the Nurse. Issue 2 (3rd May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Williams, Rebecca S.
• Is Part Of: New bioethics. Volume 22:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 133
• Page End: 147
• Publication Date: 2016-05-03
• Subjects: dead bodies -- personhood -- nursing -- postmortem care; Bioethics -- Periodicals; Medical genetics -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Periodicals; 174.2
• DOI: 10.1080/20502877.2016.1194660
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2050-2877

Abstract

Abstract : This paper addresses how interactions between UK palliative care nursing staff and the bodies of the deceased they care for function as a mechanism to help them make sense of death in line with their work as carers. Through an analysis of postmortem care rituals, I will argue that nurses play an integral role in the 'making of the dead', and look at how this functions in relation to their role as carers of bodies in line with associated states of personal wellbeing. Further to this, there is an argument to be made for the recognition of the nurse's place in biomedical models as managers of the transient body; as the constructors of the well, sick, living and dead body.