Blue Juice

Euthanasia in Veterinary Medicine

Patricia Morris

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781439907061, 9781439907054
• eBook ISBN: 9781439907078
• Topic: Medizin
• Subtopic: Medizinische Theorie, Praxis & Referenz

Offering a candid behind-the-scenes look at small-animal veterinary practices, Blue Juice explores the emotional and ethical conflicts involved in providing a "good death" for companion animals. Patricia Morris presents a nuanced ethnographic account of how veterinarians manage patient care and client relations when their responsibility shifts from saving an animal's life to negotiating a decision to end it.

Using her own experiences and observations in veterinary settings as well as the voices of seasoned and novice vets, Morris reveals how veterinarians think about euthanasia and why this "dirty work" often precipitates "burnout," moral quandaries, and even tense or emotional interactions with clients. Closely observing these interactions, Morris illuminates the ways in which euthanasia reflects deep and unresolved tension in human-animal relationships.

Blue Juice seeks to understand how practitioners, charged with the difficult task of balancing the interests of animals and their humans, deal with the responsibility of ending their patients' lives.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Euthanasia in Veterinary Medicine
• 1. Negotiating Death: Managing Disagreement with Pet Owners
• 2. Creating a Good Death: The Dramaturgy of Veterinary Euthanasia
• 3. Strange Intimacy: Managing Pet Owners’ Emotions
• 4. Learning to Euthanize: Death and the Novice Veterinarian
• 5. Coping with Euthanasia: Emotion-Management Strategies
• Conclusion: Animals as Property and Patients
• Appendix: Methodology
• Notes
• References
• Index