Paper short abstract:

I will discuss the challenges I faced initially using a theory rooted in the North American context to understand the empirical findings in a country situated in the Global South.

Paper long abstract:

My doctoral research finds death and dying have changed over the last few decades in hospitals in Bangladesh, after the introduction of life support technologies in the 1980s. In the age of the neoliberal economy, many modern biomedical technologies and resources are available in Bangladesh, and they are utilised by both the private and public health care sectors. Yet, the sociocultural and economic context of the technology-receiving country (Bangladesh) is different in nature to that of the technology-producing countries in Europe and North America. The experiences of uneven access to resources, which end up in withdrawal of life support, can be considered as a contextual Bangladeshi feature of the biomedicalisation of death. Here, I argue that the practice of life support technologies is characterised by constant ambivalence and negotiation; negotiation between relatives and life support technology, also a negotiation between ethics, legality and institutions. To analyse these dilemma and contradiction brought, biomedicalisation theory and other relevant theories originating in the Global North do not provide me with the appropriate basis on which to describe the changes brought about by the recent advancements of life support technologies in Bangladesh. Thereby, I will discuss the challenges I faced initially using a theory rooted in the North American context to understand the empirical findings in a country situated in the Global South. Put another way, how can we conceptualize biomedicalisation and the use of life support technologies in non-Western Bangladesh and how colonial legacy is entangled within this biomedical practice in Global South?