Re-Feminizing Death: Gender, Spirituality and Death Care in the Anthropocene

Critiques of ecologically harmful human activity in the Anthropocene extend beyond life and livelihoods to practices of dying, death, and the disposal of bodies. For members of the diffuse ‘New Death Movement’ operating in the post-secular West today, such environmental externalities are symptomatic of a broader failure of modern death care, what we refer to here as the ‘Death Industrial Complex’. According to New Death advocates, in its profit-driven, medicalised, de-ritualized and patriarchal form, modern death care fundamentally distorts humans’ relationship to mortality, and through it, nature. In response, the Movement promotes a (re)new(ed) way of ‘doing death’, one coded as spiritual and feminine, and based on the acceptance of natural cycles of decay and rebirth. In this article, we examine two examples from this Movement that demonstrate how the relationship between death, religion, and gender is re-configured in the Anthropocene: the rise of death doulas as alternates to funeral directors and the invention of new necro-technologies designed to transform the dead into trees. We ask how gender is positioned within the attempt to remake death care, and show how, for adherents of the New Death Movement, gender is fundamental both to a critique of the Death Industrial Complex and to mending our distorted relationship to death. By weaving together women, nature, and spirituality, the caring labours of death doulas and the fertility symbolism of new arboreal necro-technologies build an alternative model of a good death in the Anthropocene, one premised on its (re)feminization.

Media, mortality and necro-technologies: Eulogies for dead media

Working at the intersection of death studies and media studies, this article examines what we can learn from the death of media technologies designed for the deceased, what we refer to as necro-technologies. Media deaths illuminate a tension between the promise of persistence and realities of precariousness embodied in all media. This tension is, however, more visibly strained by the mortality of technologies designed to mediate and memorialise the human dead by making explicit the limitations of digital eternity implied by products in the funeral industry. In this article, we historicise and define necro-technologies within broader discussions of media obsolescence and death. Drawing from our funeral industry fieldwork, we then provide four examples of recently deceased necro-technologies that are presented in the form of eulogies. These eulogies offer a stylised but culturally significant format of remembrance to create an historical record of the deceased and their life. These necro-technologies are the funeral attendance robot CARL, the in-coffin sound system CataCombo, the posthumous messaging service DeadSocial and the digital avatar service Virtual Eternity. We consider what is at stake when technologies designed to enliven the human deceased – often in perpetuity – are themselves subject to mortality. We suggest a number of entangled economic, cultural and technical reasons for the failure of necro-technologies within the specific contexts of the death care industry, which may also help to highlight broader forces of mortality affecting all media technologies. These are described as misplaced commercial imaginaries, cultural reticence and material impermanence. In thinking about the deaths of necro-technologies, and their causes, we propose a new form of death, a ‘material death’ that extends beyond biological, social and memorial forms of human death already established to account for the finitude of media materiality and memory.

Robot death care: A study of funerary practice

Across the globe, human experiences of death, dying, and grief are now shaped by digital technologies and, increasingly, by robotic technologies. This article explores how practices of care for the dead are transformed by the participation of non-human, mechanised agents. We ask what makes a particular robot engagement with death a breach or an affirmation of care for the dead by examining recent entanglements between humans, death, and robotics. In particular, we consider telepresence robots for remote attendance of funerals; semi-humanoid robots officiating in a religious capacity at memorial services; and the conduct of memorial services by robots, for robots. Using the activities of robots to ground our discussion, this article speaks to broader cultural anxieties emerging in an era of high-tech life and high-tech death, which involve tensions between human affect and technological effect, machinic work and artisanal work, humans and non-humans, and subjects and objects.

Service evaluation of the bereavement care delivered in a UK intensive care unit

Background: Losing a loved one in the intensive care unit (ICU) can be a traumatic experience. The literature highlights that relatives of those who have died in ICU can experience symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and prolonged grief. Aim: To evaluate the service delivery of the bereavement care that is provided on a 20-bed general ICU. Methods and analysis: A literature review informing and supporting the service evaluation and development of the questionnaire. Thematic analysis was undertaken using the six-phase framework. Findings: Five main themes were found: timing; care, dignity and respect; support; information; and memory making. Bereavement care is described as after-death care. However, the participants stipulated that bereavement care should be discussed prior to the death. Participants described using a range of interventions, such as memorial services, condolence letters, follow-up meetings and diaries. Conclusion: Bereavement care was regarded as an important aspect of the care delivered in ICU. It was evident that participants strived to deliver an holistic approach, yet some found this difficult to achieve.

A microcosting analysis of ICU expenditure in the interval between brain death and organ donation

OBJECTIVE: The cost of providing care in an intensive care unit (ICU) after brain death to facilitate organ donation is unknown. The objective of this study was to estimate expenditure for the care delivered in the ICU between the diagnosis of brain death and subsequent organ donation. DESIGN: Cohort study of direct and indirect costs using bottom-up and top-down microcosting techniques. SETTING: Single adult ICU in Australia. PARTICIPANTS: All patients who met criteria for brain death and proceeded to organ donation during a 13-month period between 1 January 2018 and 31 January 2019. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: A comprehensive cost estimate for care provided in the ICU from determination of brain death to transfer to theatre for organ donation. RESULTS: Forty-five patients with brain death became organ donors during the study period. The mean duration of post-death care in the ICU was 37.9 hours (standard deviation [SD], 16.5) at a mean total cost of $7520 (SD, $3136) per donor. ICU staff salaries were the greatest contributor to total costs, accounting for a median proportion of 0.72 of total expenditure (interquartile range, 0.68–0.75). CONCLUSIONS: Substantial costs are incurred in ICU for the provision of patient care in the interval between brain death and organ donation.

Factors facilitating positive outcomes in community-based end-of-life care: A cross-sectional qualitative study of patients and family caregivers

Background: Delivery of community-based end-of-life care for patients and family members has been recognized as an important public health care approach. Despite differences in different healthcare settings and the significance of a person-centered approach, little research has investigated facilitators of community-based end-of-life care from the perspective of service recipients. In particular, there has been limited exploration of strategies to ensure positive outcomes at an operational level. Aim: To explore factors facilitating positive end-of-life care provision in community-based settings and how these are achieved in practice, from the perspectives of patients and family caregivers. Design: A qualitative cross-sectional descriptive study was undertaken through semi-structured interviews with patients and family caregivers subjected to thematic analysis. Setting/participants: Ten patients and 16 family caregivers were recruited from an end-of-life community care program provided by four non-governmental organizations in Hong Kong. Results: Seven core themes were identified: positive emotions about the relationship, positive appraisals of the relationship, care through inquiring about recipients’ circumstances, instrumentality of care (i.e. information, coaching on care, practical help, psychological support, multiple activities), comprehensiveness of care (i.e. diversity, post-death care, family-level wellbeing), structure of care (i.e. timely follow-up, well-developed system), and qualities of workers. Conclusions: Improvement in service quality might be achieved through alternating the perceptions or emotional reactions of care recipients toward care providers and increased use of sensitive inquiry. Comprehensive care and positive outcomes might be facilitated by addressing the dualities of care by providing diverse choices in pre-death and post-death care.

Educational Methods to Improve the Ability of Parents to Provide Developmental Care For Premature Infants: A Literatur Review

Babies born prematurely are at risk of experiencing visual disturbances, hearing loss, disabilities, the risk of infection and even death. Care for premature babies requires serious attention for both health workers and parents. The role of parents is very important both during hospitalization and at home. Therefore, in order to improve the abilities of parents, it is necessary to make educational efforts with the right method.ObjectivesThis literature review aims to provide an overview of educational methods that nurses can use to improve the ability of parents to care for or care for the development of premature babies. The method used is to search for literature that fits the established theme using 5 data based, namely Scopus, ProQuest, Science Direct, Elsevier Clinicaly for Nursing and Web of Science. The strategy used in finding literature that fits the theme and is used in this literature review uses the PICOS framework. Then conducted a review with the PRISMA method. The literature selection results obtained 572 publications, after going through the selection obtained 11 literatures that match the theme, with 11 educational methods. These methods can be grouped into ideas, namely increasing parental involvement during treatment, using technology, stress management and continuous monitoring. The ability of parents to care for premature babies is needed in order to minimize complications in infants, reduce morbidity, avoid disabilities, increase growth and development of premature babies optimally and reduce parental stress levels, increase parental confidence and good parents' self-efficacy. Choosing the right educational method can improve the ability of parents to properly care for and provide developmental care for premature babies.

Educational Methods to Improve the Ability of Parents to Provide Developmental Care For Premature Infants: A Literatur Review

Babies born prematurely are at risk of experiencing visual disturbances, hearing loss, disabilities, the risk of infection and even death. Care for premature babies requires serious attention for both health workers and parents. The role of parents is very important both during hospitalization and at home. Therefore, in order to improve the abilities of parents, it is necessary to make educational efforts with the right method.ObjectivesThis literature review aims to provide an overview of educational methods that nurses can use to improve the ability of parents to care for or care for the development of premature babies. The method used is to search for literature that fits the established theme using 5 data based, namely Scopus, ProQuest, Science Direct, Elsevier Clinicaly for Nursing and Web of Science. The strategy used in finding literature that fits the theme and is used in this literature review uses the PICOS framework. Then conducted a review with the PRISMA method. The literature selection results obtained 572 publications, after going through the selection obtained 11 literatures that match the theme, with 11 educational methods. These methods can be grouped into ideas, namely increasing parental involvement during treatment, using technology, stress management and continuous monitoring. The ability of parents to care for premature babies is needed in order to minimize complications in infants, reduce morbidity, avoid disabilities, increase growth and development of premature babies optimally and reduce parental stress levels, increase parental confidence and good parents' self-efficacy. Choosing the right educational method can improve the ability of parents to properly care for and provide developmental care for premature babies.

Beyond the Corporatization of Death Systems: Towards Green Death Practices

One less explored area of research concerns the response to the ecological crisis through environmentally sustainable death practices, which we broadly define in this paper as ‘green death practices’. In this paper, interdisciplinary research and scholarship are utilized to critically analyze death practices, and to demonstrate how contemporary Westernized death practices such as embalming, traditional burial, and cremation can have harmful environmental and public health implications. This paper also investigates the multi-billion-dollar funeral industry, and how death systems which place economic growth over human wellbeing can be socially exploitative, oppressive, and marginalizing towards recently bereaved persons and the environment. Death-care as corporatized care is explicitly questioned, and the paper provides a new social vision for death systems in industrialized Western societies. Ultimately, the paper advocates for how green death practices may offer new pathways for honoring our relationships to the planet, other human beings, and even our own deepest values.