ABSTRACT
Assisted dying disrupts the socially constructed narrative of what is an acceptable death within contemporary Western societies. The pursuit of assisted dying subverts the harmony of the medically constructed model of palliation, therefore, labelling these individuals as non-conformist, deviant or other. The notion that deviance sits as a contest between those with power to construct what is acceptable at end-of-life and the social reality of otherness hinders those who seek control of their demise. Those with power are not only medical practitioners opposing assisted dying, but politicians, media representatives and social media platforms. Here we connect how media outlets have become sub-agents of social control, through their mediation of assisted dying debates, using the works of Michel Foucault, Stephen Pfohl, Jean Baudrillard, Paul Lazarsfeld and Robert Merton as a theoretical framework and are demonstrated through using the 2020 referendum on assisted dying in Aotearoa New Zealand as an exemplar.
