Grief, Depression and Completed Life; How to Distinguish Existential Suffering from Medical or Situational Suffering in End-of-Life Decision-Making
Tessa Holzman1, Monash University Clayton 1Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
Abstract
In 2016, Dutch parliamentarian Pia Dijkstra submitted a law proposal to open up voluntary assisted dying (VAD) options for individuals who are not severely ill, but rather suffering existentially to such a degree that they have a persistent death wish. This proposal has come to be known as Completed Life Euthanasia and it has caused significant controversy within academic and public debate. However, internationally this is still a relatively obscure issue. An important step in both raising awareness of this debate and allowing the debate to progress in a productive and conducive way is establishing clearly what existential suffering is. Dijkstra has made clear that she envisions this form of assisted dying to be firmly outside the medical domain, but for this to work it is important to distinguish existential suffering from medical conditions, such as depression, and from situational factors, such as grief. The aim of this presentation is two-fold. The first objective is to raise international awareness of this controversy and provide applicable insights gained from the Netherlands on prospective ways to implement progressive VAD policies. The second objective is to explain what makes existential suffering and Completed Life Euthanasia unique and firmly distinct from other forms of suffering, while also providing context on ways in which they might relate to each other.
Biography
Tessa Holzman is a PhD Candidate at the Monash Bioethics Centre. She is researching end-of-life ethics, specifically the ethics of voluntary assisted dying for existential suffering alone. Her focus is on how to build ethical frameworks of implementation and policy. She is also a student member of the Clinical Ethics Response Group at the Monash Children’s Hospital, and an intern at the Royal Children’s Hospital.