Free event; register at https://bit.ly/39sKIiE

From his recently released book, The Spirit Ambulance, Dr. Stonington will share stories from the deathbeds of Thai elders: their children’s attempts to pay back their “debts of life” via intensive medical care, and the ensuing “spirit ambulance,” a rush to get patients home from the ghost-infested hospital to orchestrate their final breath in a spiritually advantageous place. Out of these stories, Dr. Stonington will abstract outward from Thailand to Southeast Asia and the globe to examine the effects high-tech medicine on vital life transitions.

Scott Stonington is an anthropologist and physician. His primary appointment at U-M is in Anthropology and International Studies. He also practices hospitalist medicine at the VA Ann Arbor and primary care at Neighborhood Family Health Center in Ypsilanti. He has published on end of life and pain management in Thailand, Buddhism and the body, and the roles of improvisation and emotion in medical expertise in the U.S. He is also lead editor of the New England Journal of Medicine's "Case Studies in Social Medicine."

Stonington’s new book is a great read for anyone interested in the global dynamics of healthcare and biomedicine, globalization, rapidly expanding technology, comparing cultures and systems of meaning, and the way global forces act upon the lives of individuals worldwide.