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<p>Choice has become a defining lens through which modern people imagine dying. A ‘good death’ is increasingly associated with the ability to articulate and realise personal preferences regarding the dying process: how, where, with whom, and even when one dies. In this paper, I examine the cultural shift that has elevated choice to a central moral ideal at the end of life. My research questions are: Why does choice matter so profoundly in contemporary societies? And how does this aspiration shape the way people live towards the end of life, and ultimately die? To answer these questions, I first offer a historical-cultural account of how choice has gradually come to function as a goal in itself. Drawing primarily on Charles Taylor’s analyses, I bring his work into dialogue with that of other scholars including Giddens, Rosa, Dodds, and Mol. I then identify three existential implications of this shift that complicate contemporary engagement with death and dying: (1) an increasingly mastery-oriented stance towards life and death, (2) the arbitrariness of meaning, and (3) an understanding of respect as unquestioning compliance with individual preferences. Finally, I propose several ways to respond to these challenges by moving beyond a narrow focus on choice and control. I argue for a rethinking of the current dominant end-of-life discourse through a more dialogical and ambivalent understanding of our relation to life and death; one that is more attuned to the lived experience and unsettling realities of dying, and better suited to enriching contemporary debates and practices surrounding the end of life.</p>

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How choice became a goal in itself: analysing the emphasis on choice and control at the end of life through the work of Charles Taylor

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年1月10日

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  • Els van Wijngaarden

摘要

Choice has become a defining lens through which modern people imagine dying. A ‘good death’ is increasingly associated with the ability to articulate and realise personal preferences regarding the dying process: how, where, with whom, and even when one dies. In this paper, I examine the cultural shift that has elevated choice to a central moral ideal at the end of life. My research questions are: Why does choice matter so profoundly in contemporary societies? And how does this aspiration shape the way people live towards the end of life, and ultimately die? To answer these questions, I first offer a historical-cultural account of how choice has gradually come to function as a goal in itself. Drawing primarily on Charles Taylor’s analyses, I bring his work into dialogue with that of other scholars including Giddens, Rosa, Dodds, and Mol. I then identify three existential implications of this shift that complicate contemporary engagement with death and dying: (1) an increasingly mastery-oriented stance towards life and death, (2) the arbitrariness of meaning, and (3) an understanding of respect as unquestioning compliance with individual preferences. Finally, I propose several ways to respond to these challenges by moving beyond a narrow focus on choice and control. I argue for a rethinking of the current dominant end-of-life discourse through a more dialogical and ambivalent understanding of our relation to life and death; one that is more attuned to the lived experience and unsettling realities of dying, and better suited to enriching contemporary debates and practices surrounding the end of life.