Dossa, Parin. Social Palliation: Canadian Muslims’ Storied Lives on Living and Dying. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2020, 232 pages

This book is not only about social palliation but also highlights systemic injustices and barriers to receiving care, care that is culturally meaningful and fulfilling. It provides insights into the limits of palliative care in relation to the needs of “continually displaced” interlocutors. While Dossa effectively makes the case for social palliation throughout the book, the study has some limitations. Social palliation is not clearly defined in the book. Instead, attributes of social palliation are uncovered through case examples over various chapters. In sum, social palliation recognizes that death and dying cannot be cut off from life and living, acknowledges the care recipient as part of a complex web of social relationships, and affirms that one’s life and border-crossing experiences matter. Dossa argues that palliative care is based upon neo-liberal values, such as individualism, which diminishes the importance of the social in health, healing, and palliation. As such, palliative care is “patient-centred focus” and “premised on fulfilling the wishes of the patient as an individual, not as a person embedded in a world of social relationships, and also as someone with a history and life experiences that should matter” (4). Palliative care becomes “contingent upon a diagnosis of terminal illness,” (4) and often ignores other circumstances where ongoing care might be necessary, such as for those with temporary limitations, unique healthcare needs, or permanent disabilities. Dossa discusses how her Canadian-Ismaili and Canadian-Iranian participants come from cultures and societies where death and dying are not cut off from life and living, which lead her interlocutors to feel displaced, lonely, and isolated when dying in Canada. The author contends that the foundational problem lies within Canada’s neo-liberal capitalist system, which “fosters individualism and self-care, while absolving society from its responsibilities towards its citizens” (138). Dossa finds that her participants, due to their unique migration histories and being racialized minorities, are continually displaced, resulting in what she calls “social wounds.” Dossa defines social wounding as “a mode of research that lends itself to a multilayered understanding of the lives of marginalized persons” (180). She argues that displacement “is a politicized phenomenon that profoundly affects people’s lives because they are compelled to leave their place of birth, after living there for generations” (5). Upon resettlement, she contends that “displaced persons are subject to continuing trauma,” which “is largely a function of colonization and neo-imperialism” (5). One form of trauma identified is the “non-recognition of their credentials and erasure of their life experiences,” which she deems “a function of structural exclusion” (6). Another form of trauma is that of being removed from social networks and the “home” to die alone. Through research and interviews with palliative care practitioners, Dossa contends that the current healthcare situation, “privileges those who are already privileged, and disenfranchises those who are dispossessed” (37). She argues that the terminally ill, “are marginalized by the existing health and palliative care systems because of their exclusive focus on end-of-life,” which, “cannot be divorced from life,” and should take into account the lives of participants who crossed “geopolitical and social boundaries [to remake] a home in a new land in the wake of displacement” (37). According to Dossa, the notion of palliative care is constructed in relation to bio-medicine, and while it may be built with intentions of inclusivity and compassionate care, it ignores border-crossing experiences and the social needs of care recipients, lending them to feel ignored, isolated, and lonely. An engaging feature of the book is Dossa’s ability to draw readers into the lives of her interlocutors through the medium of storytelling. As part of her research methodology, she invites study participants …