Life-and-Death Decisions in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Denmark: The Discrete Authority of Origin Stories

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Standard

Life-and-Death Decisions in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Denmark : The Discrete Authority of Origin Stories. / Navne, Laura E.; Svendsen, Mette N.

In: Ethnos, Vol. 84, No. 2, 2019, p. 344-361.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Harvard

Navne, LE & Svendsen, MN 2019, 'Life-and-Death Decisions in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Denmark: The Discrete Authority of Origin Stories', Ethnos, vol. 84, no. 2, pp. 344-361. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2018.1431951

APA

Navne, L. E., & Svendsen, M. N. (2019). Life-and-Death Decisions in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Denmark: The Discrete Authority of Origin Stories. Ethnos, 84(2), 344-361. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2018.1431951

Vancouver

Navne LE, Svendsen MN. Life-and-Death Decisions in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Denmark: The Discrete Authority of Origin Stories. Ethnos. 2019;84(2):344-361. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2018.1431951

Author

Navne, Laura E. ; Svendsen, Mette N. / Life-and-Death Decisions in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Denmark : The Discrete Authority of Origin Stories. In: Ethnos. 2019 ; Vol. 84, No. 2. pp. 344-361.

Bibtex

@article{de12f5123a3445b48fa2a1201de521a7,
title = "Life-and-Death Decisions in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Denmark: The Discrete Authority of Origin Stories",
abstract = "In what ways are care and compassion implicated in efforts to establish lives worth living? Drawing on fieldwork in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), in this article we investigate the role of family biographies in conducting life-and-death decisions around premature infants. Guided by a larger literature on citizenship, we view decisions in the NICU as political acts of assigning citizenship. We ask what bodies and biographies can generate and evoke care and compassion among NICU staff and forge entries or exits from the Danish Welfare State. We demonstrate that infants{\textquoteright} origin stories are appointed legitimate forms of suffering in contemporary Danish society and are thus granted an unnoticed form of authority in life-and-death decisions. In this way, we conclude that what comes to constitute a life worth living in the twenty-first-century Danish Welfare State is in fact the worth of the family.",
keywords = "belonging, compassion, family biography, infants, Life-and-death decisions",
author = "Navne, {Laura E.} and Svendsen, {Mette N.}",
year = "2019",
doi = "10.1080/00141844.2018.1431951",
language = "English",
volume = "84",
pages = "344--361",
journal = "Ethnos",
issn = "0014-1844",
publisher = "Routledge",
number = "2",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Life-and-Death Decisions in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Denmark

T2 - The Discrete Authority of Origin Stories

AU - Navne, Laura E.

AU - Svendsen, Mette N.

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - In what ways are care and compassion implicated in efforts to establish lives worth living? Drawing on fieldwork in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), in this article we investigate the role of family biographies in conducting life-and-death decisions around premature infants. Guided by a larger literature on citizenship, we view decisions in the NICU as political acts of assigning citizenship. We ask what bodies and biographies can generate and evoke care and compassion among NICU staff and forge entries or exits from the Danish Welfare State. We demonstrate that infants’ origin stories are appointed legitimate forms of suffering in contemporary Danish society and are thus granted an unnoticed form of authority in life-and-death decisions. In this way, we conclude that what comes to constitute a life worth living in the twenty-first-century Danish Welfare State is in fact the worth of the family.

AB - In what ways are care and compassion implicated in efforts to establish lives worth living? Drawing on fieldwork in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), in this article we investigate the role of family biographies in conducting life-and-death decisions around premature infants. Guided by a larger literature on citizenship, we view decisions in the NICU as political acts of assigning citizenship. We ask what bodies and biographies can generate and evoke care and compassion among NICU staff and forge entries or exits from the Danish Welfare State. We demonstrate that infants’ origin stories are appointed legitimate forms of suffering in contemporary Danish society and are thus granted an unnoticed form of authority in life-and-death decisions. In this way, we conclude that what comes to constitute a life worth living in the twenty-first-century Danish Welfare State is in fact the worth of the family.

KW - belonging

KW - compassion

KW - family biography

KW - infants

KW - Life-and-death decisions

U2 - 10.1080/00141844.2018.1431951

DO - 10.1080/00141844.2018.1431951

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85041635187

VL - 84

SP - 344

EP - 361

JO - Ethnos

JF - Ethnos

SN - 0014-1844

IS - 2

ER -

ID: 241159132