关键词: 死亡, 道德, 社会想象, 阶层区隔, 家庭

Abstract: This ethnographical study argues that in dealing with death, contemporary Chinese families are often conflicted between the two leading social imaginaries of "Ordinary Medicine" and "Life Quality"."Ordinary Medicine," a term borrowed from American medical anthropologist Sharon Kaufman, is defined in this study as the institutionalized radical life-sustaining treatments that may prolong and increase patients' suffering."Life Quality" refers to the efforts by families to give as much normality and enjoyment of life as possible to their terminally ill loved ones. In common practices, both "Ordinary Medicine" and "Life Quality" act as default moral rationality, and "Life Quality" particularly calls for the initiatives of the patient families.
"Life Quality" in practices illustrates the class distinction and structural inequality of contemporary China at multiple levels from affluent families facing the moral decision of prolonging life or ending suffering, to poor families facing the dilemma of economic ruin and moral duty, to the everyday moral and economic decisions of treatment and/or suffering, livelihood and/or dignity that the majority of ordinary families have to face. All this helps shape a class differentiated picture of morality in dealing with death that is "constant yet different" in contemporary China. Despite the discrepancies in what and how to have life quality among the different classes, faith in family has become a common value dependence. To have a good "family life" in its best at the end of one's life has become a shared normative moral practice in China, reflecting the search for certainty of contemporary Chinese families in the great uncertainty of social transformation.

Key words: death, moral, social imaginary, class distinction, family