Abstract
This paper addresses, from a socio-legal perspective, the question of the significance of law for the treatment, care and the end-of-life decision making for patients with chronic disorders of consciousness. We use the phrase ‘chronic disorders of consciousness’ as an umbrella term to refer to severely brain-injured patients in prolonged comas, vegetative or minimally conscious states. Based on an analysis of interviews with family members of patients with chronic disorders of consciousness, we explore the images of law that were drawn upon and invoked by these family members when negotiating the situation of their relatives, including, in some cases, the ending of their lives. By examining ‘legal consciousness’ in this way (an admittedly confusing term in the context of this study,) we offer a distinctly sociological contribution to the question of how law matters in this particular domain of social life.
Highlights
This paper addresses, from a socio-legal perspective, the question of the significance of law for the treatment, care and the end-of-life decision making for patients with chronic disorders of consciousness
This paper examines the topic of chronic disorders of consciousness from a legal perspective
Our intentions underlying this deceptively simple opening statement, require some elaboration: what do we mean by these key phrases ‘chronic disorders of consciousness’ and ‘legal perspective’? The phrase ‘chronic disorders of consciousness’ is an umbrella term referring to severely brain-injured patients in prolonged comas, vegetative[1] or minimally conscious states.[2]
Summary
This paper addresses, from a socio-legal perspective, the question of the significance of law for the treatment, care and the end-of-life decision making for patients with chronic disorders of consciousness. ‘Legal consciousness’ comprises society’s constructions of legality – the cultural characterisations of legality that are common currency and drawn upon when, as individuals and groups, we make sense of everyday life.[10] To study legal consciousness is to study the background assumptions about legality that structure and inform routine thoughts and actions.[11] An empirical focus on legal consciousness, like much legal research, involves an enquiry into the role of law in society – but not law as expounded by the courts or legal personnel, rather ‘law’ as constructed by society in various cultural ‘narratives’ of legality, as they are sometimes described.[12] This paper, focuses on the images of law that were drawn upon and invoked by family members when negotiating the situation of their relatives with chronic disorders of consciousness, including, in some cases, the ending of their lives In this way, we present a study of law in the everyday lives[13] of ordinary people enduring extraordinary circumstances, offering a distinctly sociological contribution to the question of how law matters in this particular domain of social life
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
