| dc.description.abstract | The thesis presents quantitative and qualitative thematic analyses of a postal survey
and interview study of members of Friends at the End (FATE), a Glasgow-based right
to die society. This is one of the first UK studies aimed toward filling a gap in
knowledge about who joins a UK right to die society, and their reasons for doing so.
The thesis attributes responsibility for the right to die movement’s continuing existence
to contemporary socio-cultural norms of individualism and self-determination in
promoting desire for autonomy and choice surrounding dying and death. It shows how
and why a distinct group of predominantly older and higher social class individuals,
22% of whom have health and social care professional backgrounds, have decided to
join FATE. The right to die movement is shown to be a new social movement
concerned with health, ageing and death activism that challenges contemporary
biomedical models of managing dying and death. The thesis shows how ageing, social
class, religiosity, socio-medical constructs of dying, risk management and altruism
toward others all contribute toward the ongoing existence of pro-right to die attitudes
and beliefs. It also shows how personal fears about the manner of future dying, both
physical and existential are frequently informed by personal experiences, identified as
critical factors in decisions made to join the movement. FATE exists in a culture in
which assessing risk has become very pervasive, and joining FATE is, for many
members, a risk-avoidance strategy, given their concerns that future dying and death
may be unpleasant. Conditional desire for hastened death is also shown to be informed
by desire to avoid placing burden on others, a form of reciprocal altruism in which
hastened death benefits both the dying person and family members as well as society
as a whole. | en_US |
