From cradle to grave?: policy responses to death in the UK

Abstract

While death features widely in various humanities and some social science disciplines, to date it has not been given the attention it deserves in social policy discourse or research. This paper sets out to begin to rectify that omission. Outlining a range of policy areas affected by death, it argues that budget and outcome-driven priorities in the UK have resulted in the evolution of disconnected and inconsistent policy responses to death. The paper begins by outlining death rates and characteristics of population ageing before focussing on social divisions in death and associated policies. It considers the death and UK social policy agenda before outlining the key characteristics involved in developing a coherent policy response and policy analysis in this field. It argues for a more comprehensive, consistent and joined up policy response to death, and corresponding academic study of death, which acknowledges and supports individuals preparing to die, when they die, and those left behind.

Pregnancy remains, infant remains, or the corpse of a child? The incoherent governance of the dead foetal body in England

“…In a different jurisdiction, it has been argued that the human corpse is a quasi-legal entity in itself (Troyer, 2008). Bringing together for analytic purposes the governance of the human corpse and the liminal dead bodies of foetal beings through consideration of second-trimester pregnancy loss in England produces a useful example of the incoherence of policy around death in the UK which has previously been addressed in this journal (L. Foster et al, 2017). However, I argue here that the case of the dead foetal body illustrates that is it not simply policy around death which is incoherent but the whole governance of death.…”

Invisible Labours

“…Entitlements to financial resources through relationships to kin who have died can be a source of meaning and value to the bereaved (Corden and Hirst 2013). By contrast, it has been argued that the recognition that financial entitlements brings in the context of death can be undermined by inequity stemming from an incoherent set of systems for the administration of state support around death (Foster, Woodthorpe and Walker 2017). In other contexts, principles of entitlement though relations with kin have been applied to pregnancy loss.…”

The Global Spread of Death Café: A Cultural Intervention Relevant to Policy?

“…Ultimately, if 'having the conversation' is being claimed as an undisputed social good in policies and rhetoric, it is essential to understand how cultural interventions designed to promote 'death talk' operate at the grassroots level around the world. This study stands as an important contribution to a nascent social policy of death and dying (Foster et al, 2019).…”