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Memento mori revisited: unravelling the role of choice regarding death and dying in old age (verhuisd)

  • Start: 2020
  • Status: lopend

Steeds meer mensen willen grip en controle op het moment en de wijze van sterven. Dit brengt ingewikkelde keuzes met zich mee. Dit onderzoek analyseert hoe onze omgang met de dood hierdoor verandert en wat de impact hiervan is op ons leven, de ouderdom, en de wijze waarop we sterven. Voor dit onderzoek heeft NWO aan Els van Wijngaarden een VENI-subsidie toegekend. Els van Wijngaarden is in 2022 universitair hoofddocent geworden aan het Radboud UMC.

Beschrijving (Engelstalig) 

Our attitude towards death is undergoing a fascinating change. A growing group of older people is determined to exercise choice and control over the time and manner of dying, resulting in a new awareness of death. The Veni-project of Els van Wijngaarden breaks scientific ground by exploring the impact of the growing emphasis on choice regarding death upon how we live towards the end of life. It unravels the socio-cultural and relational dynamics related to such choices.


To achieve this aim, the project is divided into three interrelated subprojects:


  1. Drawing on the work of Ricoeur and Taylor, I formulate a philosophical account of choice that focusses on its socio-cultural and relational embeddedness, including an analysis of the relation between choice and social imaginaries (understood as shared notions and images of a certain socio-cultural group, involving moral claims about basic values of society). 
  2. Through discourse analysis of journalistic content I empirically analyse social imaginaries of ‘death in old age’. Furthermore, adopting a longitudinal empirical-phenomenological approach I explore the lived experience of choice-making processes regarding death and dying, by interviewing older people and their relatives, trying to capture the temporal and contextualised nature of such processes.
  3. Finally, combining the empirical findings (subproject-2) with the philosophical insights (subproject-1) I analyse the underlying moral experience.
This results in a new ethical theory, aiming to refine our moral discernment regarding the complexity of the choice-making processes in question, and provide new views and vocabulary. My established expertise in the field of self-directed dying in old age, coupled with my considerable experience with empirical-phenomenological research and interdisciplinarity put me in a unique positon to conduct this study. Alongside its academic relevance, my Veni-findings will inform social policy makers, health professionals and the public on ways to deal with these actual choices regarding death and dying.

Onderzoeker

dr. Els van Wijngaarden

(Mede)financiering

Dit project wordt mogelijk gemaakt door financiering vanuit het NWO-Talentprogramma Veni.

Zie ook

Contact

Els van Wijngaarden is inmiddels werkzaam voor Radboud UMC.

Steeds meer mensen willen grip en controle op het moment en de wijze van sterven. Dit brengt ingewikkelde keuzes met zich mee. Dit onderzoek analyseert hoe onze omgang met de dood hierdoor verandert en wat de impact hiervan is op ons leven, de ouderdom, en de wijze waarop we sterven.