Type of Document	Master's Thesis
Author	Hall, Lindsay Anne
URN	etd-05152007-134833
Title	Death, Power, and the Body: A Bio-political Analysis of Death and Dying
Degree	Master of Arts
Department	Political Science
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Dr. Tim Luke Committee Chair Dr. Antonio Vazquez-Arroyo Committee Member Dr. Scott Nelson Committee Member
Keywords	Death and Dying Power Giorgio Agamben Michel Foucault
Date of Defense	2007-05-07
Availability	restricted
Abstract According to Michel Foucault, life has become the focus of an infinite amount of both micro and macro management strategies, the point of which being to optimize health and to prolong life. Foucault labeled such strategies as “bio-power.” While bio-power exists on many levels of society, my focus has been on certain medical technologies that have helped to expose the political nature of death by calling into question the time of death and who decides it. As the line between life and death has become more and more indistinct, Giorgio Agamben has argued that bio-politics turns into “thanatopolitics”—a politics of death. As Agamben argues, death is not a biological moment but a political decision. In this study I will focus specifically on reconsidering the relations of power surrounding the decision to stop preserving life in the particular space of the hospital room. I will then attempt to consider how our exposure to death in this space of power might be resisted using both the insights of Foucault and Agamben.
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