J. Bishop, the anticipatory corpse, Medicine, power and the care of the dying

Antje Kahl

pp. 589-596

in: Human Studies 37 (4), 2014.

Abstract

“[T]here is something rotten at the heart of medicine” (p. 22)—this is one of the central statements of Jeffrey Paul Bishop in his book The Anticipatory Corpse. Medicine, Power and the Care of the Dying. The obvious, if somewhat morbid, thought that “rotten” would refer to the decaying body as the central subject of investigation is, however, misleading. Instead, Bishop aims to demonstrate that the modern trend of medicalizing dying and death is the wrong way.