Awareness and modern dying

Abstract

This paper takes as its starting-point sociological research which conceptualized modern dying as a status passage. Most deaths in modern Britain result from long-term disease conditions over a period of months or even years and so are likely to be predictable. Given such durations, it may be that a modern role of dying, which is dependent upon awareness of dying, has emerged. Sociological research has largely focused upon people dying from cancer, yet the majority of long-term deaths result from other chronic conditions. The certainty of death may develop slowly over a long period of time: even when the fact of death is certain its timing may remain in doubt. Although such uncertainties apply to all long-term terminal conditions, they are more readily resolved for cancer deaths than for other types of terminal conditions. People dying from such conditions are thus unlikely to be in a position to adopt a dying role.