Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41859472›Full record

ArticleBioSocieties2026

The nearness of the state: substitution practices at the ragged ends of life in the U.S.

Janelle S Taylor, Elizabeth K Vig

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BioSocieties, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Janelle S TaylorDepartment of Anthropology, University of Toronto, 19 Ursula Franklin Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2L2 Canada.ORCID 0000-0001-8162-5106
Elizabeth K VigSeattle VA Puget Sound Health Care System, 1660 S. Columbian Way (S-182), Box 358280, Seattle, WA 98108 USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

This essay examines two stories emerging from two different research projects, both based in Seattle, Washington (U.S.): one woman's story of her efforts to implement her husband's wishes following a stroke, and another woman's story of a failed suicide attempt by her dear friend who had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. We first consider these stories in relation to the concept of substituted judgment implicit in the influential discourse of advance care planning (ACP). We then consider them in light of the concepts of 'substitution practices' and 'nearness' as developed by Mette Nordahl Svendsen. We contend that these concepts open valuable new perspectives and questions about medical decision-making and care in situations of grave impairment in late life. In particular, they help direct attention to the nearness of the state at the ragged ends of life, and indeed allow the situation of vulnerable and gravely impaired individuals to serve as a window onto what 'the state' is understood to be and do.

Indexed as

Advance care planningEnd-of-life careMedical decisionmakingNearnessSubstitution practices

Identifiers

PMID41859472
PMCPMC12995712

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.