What a good end of life means is a particularly relevant question in the context of confinement and prison. Most of the questions and issues raised by end of life for those living in liberty also apply to the correctional setting. However, the institutional particularities and logics of the prison create unique barriers and make it difficult in practice to reconcile concerns in regard to end of life-like care and comfort-with the mandate of corrections-confinement and punishment. At present, the literature on end of life in prison is dominated by U.S. contributions. We have therefore invited researchers from various disciplines in various countries to analyze the topic from their disciplinary perspectives and within the respective institutional frames of their national contexts.
Keywords: end of life; ethics; palliative care; practice; prison.