Abstract
Drawing on fieldwork in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Chiang Mai during 2010 and 2012, I examine neonatal care as a contingent entanglement of technological and ethical relationships with vulnerable others. Along the continuum of universal antenatal and delivery care, neonatal medicine becomes a normative part of reproductive health care in Chiang Mai. As the NICU opens its door to sick newborns whose belonging to kinship and the nation-state is uncertain, neonatal care requires deliberate practices to incorporate them into life-sustaining connections. By tracing medical staff’s effort to be accountable to their fragile patients, I show that withdrawing of intensive care is relational work that requires affective involvement and distancing through commensality, prosthetic extensions, and karmic network. This specific mode of care, which is premised on the combination of unconditional openness and careful detachment, offers insight into a possible enactment of hospitality within biomedical institutions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 560-571 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 Nov 1 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Health(social science)
- Anthropology
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Caring for Premature Life and Death : The Relational Dynamics of Detachment in a NICU. / Seo, Bo Kyeong.
In: Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness, Vol. 35, No. 6, 01.11.2016, p. 560-571.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Caring for Premature Life and Death
T2 - The Relational Dynamics of Detachment in a NICU
AU - Seo, Bo Kyeong
PY - 2016/11/1
Y1 - 2016/11/1
N2 - Drawing on fieldwork in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Chiang Mai during 2010 and 2012, I examine neonatal care as a contingent entanglement of technological and ethical relationships with vulnerable others. Along the continuum of universal antenatal and delivery care, neonatal medicine becomes a normative part of reproductive health care in Chiang Mai. As the NICU opens its door to sick newborns whose belonging to kinship and the nation-state is uncertain, neonatal care requires deliberate practices to incorporate them into life-sustaining connections. By tracing medical staff’s effort to be accountable to their fragile patients, I show that withdrawing of intensive care is relational work that requires affective involvement and distancing through commensality, prosthetic extensions, and karmic network. This specific mode of care, which is premised on the combination of unconditional openness and careful detachment, offers insight into a possible enactment of hospitality within biomedical institutions.
AB - Drawing on fieldwork in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Chiang Mai during 2010 and 2012, I examine neonatal care as a contingent entanglement of technological and ethical relationships with vulnerable others. Along the continuum of universal antenatal and delivery care, neonatal medicine becomes a normative part of reproductive health care in Chiang Mai. As the NICU opens its door to sick newborns whose belonging to kinship and the nation-state is uncertain, neonatal care requires deliberate practices to incorporate them into life-sustaining connections. By tracing medical staff’s effort to be accountable to their fragile patients, I show that withdrawing of intensive care is relational work that requires affective involvement and distancing through commensality, prosthetic extensions, and karmic network. This specific mode of care, which is premised on the combination of unconditional openness and careful detachment, offers insight into a possible enactment of hospitality within biomedical institutions.
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84961392551&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01459740.2016.1145678
DO - 10.1080/01459740.2016.1145678
M3 - Article
C2 - 27002791
AN - SCOPUS:84961392551
VL - 35
SP - 560
EP - 571
JO - Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness
JF - Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness
SN - 0145-9740
IS - 6
ER -