ABSTRACT
The way Americans live—in or out of fellowship, will largely shape and define the way they die—in or out of fellowship. This chapter explores how the general cultural breakdown of community and fellowship influences the human experience of dying persons and their loved ones. The rational, technological framework of medical work often stymies the formation of community and fellowship rituals. Physicians are not only restricted by the technological canons of professional training and detachment, they are structurally and psychically constrained from attending to the intimacy and fellowship needs of their dying patients. There are structural constraints inhibiting fellowship formation even for those dying patients who are connected to a network of people who care about them. The limitations of visiting hours, the restricting of children, the fact that the patient is in the hospital and not home all serve as inhibitors to the formation of fellowship and community at the deathbed.
