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Killing with kindness: Veterinary euthanasia and the social construction of personhood

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Sociological Forum

Abstract

Euthanizing companion animals is a common feature of veterinary practice. Based on data collected during participant observation in a large general veterinary clinic in the Northeast, this discussion focuses on how veterinarians evaluate euthanasia cases, orchestrate euthanasia encounters, and experience the occupational activity of routinely dispensing death. The description of the ambivalence that surrounds euthanasia in veterinary practice is used to ground a general analysis of “personhood” as a constructed social designation and the conflicts focused around the implemented deaths of those beings defined as existing in the contested realm between person/subject and nonperson/object.

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  1. Department of Sociology, University of Connecticut, Greater Hartford Campus, 85 Lawler Road, 06117, West Hartford, Connecticut

    Clinton R. Sanders

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  1. Clinton R. Sanders
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Sanders, C.R. Killing with kindness: Veterinary euthanasia and the social construction of personhood. Sociol Forum 10, 195–214 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02095958

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