Withdrawal of treatment in the critical care unit

This chapter focuses on what happens following the decision to withdraw treatment from patients who are cared for in a critical care unit. It focuses on ethical decision making, rituals and symbolism through a critical care scenario observed as part of a period of intensive observation undertaken in the field during ethnographic research. The patient’s trajectory of dying and death unfolds behind closed curtains around the specific patient’s bed space. The critical care unit is seen as a unique cultural space.