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Disposer de la vie.... Disposer de la mort. Les Entretiens d'

Michel Wieviorka (dir.)

Disposer de la vie.... Disposer de la mort. Les Entretiens d'Auxerre

• Michel Wieviorka (dir.)
  La Tour D'Aigues, Editions de l'Aube, 2006
  
  
  
  
  
  Governing life. Governing death.
  At all times and in all places, life and death have posed far-reaching questions to mankind.
  These fundamental questions have developed considerably in the past ten years, so much so that present-day modernity has assumed shapes and appearances which are often ambivalent or a source of anxiety. We control life and death differently, possibly to a greater extent than in the past. The fantastic progress of science and of modern medicine seems to introduce more efficiency into all stages of human experience: before birth, as from conception itself; life expectancy is constantly rising and old-age is becoming a considerable part of our lives. At the same time, there is a redeployment of religious elements, the sacred and beliefs; anything capable of enchanting or re-enchanting life and death is given pride of place. The State has been apprized and reason is at work secularising these elements; but, faced with decisions which involve him or her, the individual is in a position to make choices and to be subjected to them. From the intimacy of the personal to consideration of the globalisation of economic life, from the individual subject to the changes which affect the world, in matters concerning arrangements for life and death, this publication approaches both the aspects which appear to be the most material as well as those which remain the domain of the mysterious.

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