摘要：Whose lives are valuable? Whose lives are worth living? This essay
examines these questions by investigating the ways in which global
health development programs deal with palliative care, specifically
care for people living with HIV, in resource-limited settings. Through
interviews and participant observation, I explore the concept of worth
as expressed by a particular funding agency and the Central Hospital
Network’s (CHN) palliative care staff in an Asian country (not specified
due to ethical considerations). Based on six months of ethnographic
investigation conducted during an internship from February
through August 2015 in a palliative care hospital and organization
associated with CHN focused on caring for the poor living with HIV/
AIDS, I argue that decisions regarding funding for people with incurable
diseases are inseparably tied to understandings of whose
lives are more valuable than others. I argue that palliative care that
seeks to improve the quality of life for persons with life-threatening
illness—especially in resource-limited settings—will continue to face
barriers to its development as long as it is judged by utilitarian, neoliberal
development standards.
