On Wednesday evening (opening night of our conference) we have the pleasure to listen to the keynote by Dr. Kami Fletcher, on how historical and ongoing injustices serve as a catalyst to community commitment to policy change and social justice amongst the Black community in the USA.

Dr. Kami Fletcher

Associate Professor of African Diasporic History & Coordinator of Africana Studies

President of Collective for Radical Death Studies

www.kamifletcher.com

On Friday afternoon, we will have the pleasure to experience our own death. The pervasive denial of death in modern society has led to an unbalanced relationship with death—treating it as an existential problem to be avoided, rather than a natural part of the life cycle that should be openly discussed. A key barrier to meaningful conversations about death and dying is human’s unconscious tendency to suppress thoughts about death and dying. This underscores the need to (re-)discover strategies that encourage open, meaningful discussions about death without triggering resistance, suppression, or denial. One such strategy comes from ancient Buddhist and philosophical traditions, which proposed that practicing the art of dying can help reduce the denial of death and foster a greater appreciation for life. The Nine Cemetery Contemplations, for instance, encourage individuals to visualize the nine stages of decay of their own body. Building on these insights, this keynote will guide the audience through a practice of the art of dying via meditation. The participants’ experiences will be connected to findings from a recent art-meets-science project that explored the effects of the art installation This Body That Once Was You by Bakels and Mascini.

Prof. Enny Das

Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, the Netherlands

Enny Das is a Professor of Communication and Persuasion at Radboud University and the Research Director of the Centre for Language Studies. Trained as a psychologist and having worked across various research paradigms, her research has a strong interdisciplinary focus, drawing insights from psychology, communication science, and medicine. In recent years, Enny has examined the paradox of why humans tend to avoid thoughts of death in real life yet willingly engage with movies that feature characters suffering and dying, as part of a research project funded by the Dutch Research Council NWO. She has collaborated with Dutch artists and film festivals to develop and test strategies for subtly confronting individuals with the fear of death, and she initiated the Sterf! [Drop Dead!] film festival. Enny is a member of the Academia Europaea and the Health Council of the Netherlands.

On Thursday night, we invite you to get into a conversation on euthanasia. The Netherlands is internationally known to have a functioning euthanasia legislation. Since the Euthanasia Law was passed in 2002, there have been ongoing public and professional debates about the conditions and circumstances under which euthanasia should or should not be allowed, and the legal and ethical boundaries of euthanasia practices. In recent years, numerous “boundary cases” have stirred up this debate, including cases of people with dementia, young people, cases of mental (as opposed to physical) suffering, and discussions around a “completed life.” These cases and debates call into question the boundaries of the existing euthanasia law. How, and to what extent, is the Dutch law being stretched? With a highly diverse panel, we will explore these questions and offer the audience an opportunity to delve deeper into the Dutch approach to euthanasia.

The roundtable discussion panel consists of the following speakers:

Yvette Schuijt

Yvette Schuijt works as a legal counsel for NVVE, the Dutch Right to Die Society, and has a background in the field of medical law. Based in Amsterdam, she advises on legal and ethical issues surrounding voluntary assisted dying and patients’ rights. Passionate about the right to die with dignity, Schuijt ensures legal support for individuals navigating end-of-life options under Dutch law. She was actively involved in the process of shaping the current “Completed Life Bill,” lending her expertise to this critical legislative initiative. Schuijt’s work reflects her commitment to fostering compassionate, legally sound approaches to end-of-life care.

Theo Boer

Theo Boer is Professor of Healthcare Ethics at the Protestant Theological University in Utrecht. He graduated from the Universities in Utrecht and Uppsala, and from 1987-2001 worked as a researcher at the Center for Bioethics and Health Law (presently Ethics Institute) of Utrecht University. From 2005-2014, dr. Boer was a member of a Regional Euthanasia Review Committee. Presently, dr. Boer is a member of the Dutch Health Council. While not opposed to euthanasia, he now nevertheless stands critical about where Dutch euthanasia practice has developed.

Kit Vanmechelen

Kit Vanmechelen, a Flemish psychiatrist, has been working in northern Netherlands for 30 years. For the last 10 years, she has been working intensively on euthanasia based on suffering due to mental illness. She granted life-termination on request dozens of times and a multitude of these requests she assessed. Together with a few colleagues and a large group of people directly involved (patients and relatives), she set up the KEA Foundation (Euthanasia Knowledge Centre for Mental Disorders) to reduce the taboo surrounding a persistent death wish in the mental health sector. Together with colleague Oosterhoff and patient Esther Beukema, she wrote the book Let Me Go (Dutch: Laat me gaan, 2023) on the topic.

Hansje van de Beek

Hansje van de Beek is an investigative journalist at Argos, a journalistic platform of the Dutch public broadcaster that produces radio, television, and online content. In recent years, she has focused on medical ethics, exploring topics like euthanasia and assisted suicide. Hansje is the co-creator of the three-part podcast Dr. Bones, which investigates a serial liar posing as a forensic pathologist. In her series Dolle Mina’s van de Dood (The Mad Minas of Death), she investigates self-chosen death, following the trial of seven elderly individuals who were prosecuted for assisting suicide.

Els van Wijngaarde

Els van Wijngaarden is a care ethicist and associate professor in “Meaning and Ethics regarding the End of Life” at Radboud University Medical Center (Nijmegen, the Netherlands). Working at the intersection of the humanities and the social sciences, her line of research concerns ethical and existential questions regarding death and dying in old age, with a specific interest for the role of choice and control at the end-of-life. Previously, she has studied Religious Studies at VU University Amsterdam, with a specialisation in Existential Counseling and Health Chaplaincy in Organisations.