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Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians encounter death and dying routinely in the course of their jobs. Many times the death is not a clean and sterile occurrence but is witnessed and/or participated in under the most trying physical and emotional conditions. Using a participant observation approach, this research reveals that these workers are assisted in their response to death and dying by six principal coping aids: educational desensitization, humour, language alternation, scientific fragmentation, escape into work, and rationalization. 83 0305-8 107/83/0 1008344 $02.00/0 0 I983 The British Psychological Society

Infant death has extreme emotional and symbolic effects on parents and health care professionals who face the moral and ethical aspects of life and death decisions, complicated by government ideology. Social workers can help with understanding the resulting dilemmas and suggest possible interventions.

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