ABSTRACT
The chapter examines how the embryonic organisation of Karuna Hospice Service (KHS) came to negotiate its existence in spite of such threats. Funding talk is central to understanding both the genesis and possible obliteration of the KHS project. As will be explored later, the nature of KHS’s funding is seen as a Janus-headed influence, which takes whilst giving, imposes whilst empowering, and restricts whilst freeing. As a factor in determining the fate of KHS’s bid for existence funding cannot be overstated. Such professional disapproval was also indicated by participants, who mentioned nursing as well as physician criticisms of KHS’s practices with the dying. Such threats to professional standing did not just come from the gaze from without, but were also seen to be a function of problems associated with the early public discursive practices of KHS. The KHS discourse is situated within the international hospice discourse of ‘death with dignity’.
