Masculinity, moralities and being cared for: An exploration of experiences of living and dying in a hospice

Hospices are playing an increasingly important role in end of life care in Australia and internationally and the in-patient hospice experience has not been well documented by social scientists. This paper explores some important facets of the contemporary hospice experience through an examination of the perspectives of 11 male and 9 female Australian in-patients in the last few weeks of their lives. Through a series of qualitative in-depth interviews, we explore their conceptions of death and dying and their experiences of being cared for. The results illustrate a range of important themes including: tensions around what constitutes ‘the good death’; dying and caring as moral practice; and, the centrality of gender identity and relations in shaping experiences of dying and caring. We argue for a sociological approach to death and dying that better elucidates the interplay of identity, morality and relationality at the end of life.