SOCIAL GERONTOLOGY TODAY

An Introduction

Chapter 13: Death, Dying and Bereavement - Study Questions

1. Discuss the statement "It is not the richest nations that have the highest life expectancy but those where there is less difference among social classes."

2. Discuss what is meant by the statement "An individual's awareness of his/her own dying is socially constructed and managed."

3. Discuss the dying trajectory.

4. Distinguish between social death and personal death.

5. What are some of the problems and issues that have been experienced with advance directives from the patients viewpoint? From the physician's?

6. In what ways has death been bureaucratized?

7. Form two debate teams, one to defend assisted suicide, the other to argue against assisted suicide. Present to the class.

8. Read the Social Policy Issue case presented in this chapter. Assume instead that Mrs. Candura's daughter says she does not want her mother to receive the surgery. Her daughter says that for several years before becoming ill, Mrs. Candura cared for her bedridden spouse until his death. Mrs. Candura's experience as a caregiver prompted her to indicate repeatedly to her daughter that she would not want her life "artificially prolonged" if she "cannot care for herself" and if there is "no chance for a full recovery." The living will also names the daughter as proxy decision maker. How would you treat Mrs. Candura if you were her physician and what are your reasons?

9. How has emphasis on the nuclear family rather than on larger kinship or community wide networks changed the experience of widowhood?

This site built and maintained by James E. Hanggi, GRAPH - E-T Web Designs, 601 Lockwood Rd., Royal Oak, MI 48067