The Cause Of Death Vs. The Gift Of Life Article Review Sample

In the article in context, the author goes on to explicate that in the times of late modernity, there have been higher amount conflicts regarding the professional jurisdiction. It has been discussed how this enhancement in the amount of conflict is caused by the emergence of technological advancements that have the paramount capacity of transforming the domains of expertise of people of the society. The author goes on to describe how in the United States of America the medical examiners have the power as per the legal codes to look into and certify demises that are suspicious in nature. Thus, the domains of public health and criminal justice get intertwined in this course of action. Timmermans goes on to explain how the procurement organizations have come about in the span of last decade to trigger the massive advancement in the realm of surgical techniques and immunology. (Timmermans) This gradual transformation and development has served the cause of posing challenge to the jurisdiction of the medical practitioners. Thus, the medical practitioners now request having access to the dead body for the purpose of tissue and organ transplantation. In this process, the writing goes on to explore the jurisdictional relationships between an establish profession and an emerging one in the domain of medical sciences. The author discusses about three types of conflicting jurisdictional relationships that are namely subordinated, standardized, and commodified jurisdictional relationship. The strength of the writing lies in the fact that it goes on to explore the emerging relationships that entail the intertwined relationship of different professions. However, the weakness of the article is in the fact that it does not explore the avenue of actual job of forensic death investigation and the respective positions of public health and criminal justice in this context.

Works Cited

Timmermans, Stefan. “The cause of death vs. the gift of life: boundary maintenance and
the politics of expertise in death investigation.” Sociology of Health & Illness 24.5 (2002): 550-574.