About this project
This PhD project undertakes a study of the ritualization of assisted dying in the Netherlands. What do people do before they receive euthanasia? How do their last meaningful moments help them say goodbye? How does it help their next of kin? These and other questions I am trying to answer with the following research.
Goals
The project has three goals:
- Improve our understanding into the contemporary habits prior to assisted dying.
- Understanding what aspects of meaningful moments help those concerned.
- Providing better support to facilitate a ‘good death’.
So far, there has been no sustained research into the ritualization of this contemporary form of dying. However, assisted dying is an important social phenomenon that has the potential to challenge the status quo of ritual studies. Mainly because assisted dying gives the ultimate control about circumstances and timing of death and thus its highly “plannable".
Progress of the project
In 2022, the Dutch euthanasia law marked its 20th anniversary. Two years later, in 2024, 5.8% of all deaths in the Netherlands involved euthanasia (source: Regional Review Committees for Euthanasia). The Netherlands remains globally unique in legally allowing a self-chosen death—provided strict criteria are met. But how do people prepare for that moment? How do they shape their farewell, and what do they do, create, and share in the process? That is what I have been privileged to observe.
Now in its third year, this research project has brought me into contact with many remarkable individuals. Over the past twenty months, more than fifty loved ones have shared their experiences with me about the death of someone close to them who chose euthanasia. In addition, I had the opportunity to accompany 21 people intensively through the final phase of their lives—sometimes for several weeks, sometimes for months. I was allowed to be present in deeply vulnerable, brave, at times confusing, but often profoundly loving moments.
Not everyone passed away in the end—and that in itself taught me a lot. A terminal diagnosis can initiate conversations and choices, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the end is near. I witnessed how ‘extra time’ was lived—sometimes as relief, sometimes as struggle, often as precious.
In some cases, I was present in the final hours—occasionally even during the moment of euthanasia itself. Having previously witnessed first breaths as a midwife, I now found myself quietly accompanying the last. I was deeply moved by the openness with which people shared their stories and the trust they extended to me.
Now begins the phase of writing. In the coming period, I will begin to analyze the material, searching for patterns in how people shape their farewell: in what they do, make, say—and how they give ritual meaning to the transition from life to death.
