The Construction of Dying as a Process: the Management of Health Professionals at the End of Life

The aim of this paper is to analyze how professionals of palliative care –a branch of medicine specialized in the care of dying patients– define, plan and disclose the “terminal” status of patients with advanced cancer diseases. The article is based on ethnographic observations and interviews with professionals in a palliative care service in the Buenos Aires city. The paper analyzes the tasks of definition and projection of the dying process and the way professionals disclose information about the dying prognosis. The analysis of these practices shows how the “end of life” is constructed in two ways: as a stage of psychological preparation for patients and families (and therefore an object of professional intervention), and as gradual process culminating in death.