Memento mori revisited: unravelling the role of choice regarding death and dying in old age (moved)
- Start: 2020
- Status: ongoing
People increasingly wish to have some control over the time and the manner of their dying. This implies various complex choices. This research analyses how our relationship to death is changing and how this is impacting our life, old age, and the manner of our dying. Els van Wijngaarden received an NWO Veni grant to conduct this study. She currently works as a senior researcher for Radboud UMC.
Description
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:
- 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).
- 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.
- Finally, combining the empirical findings (subproject-2) with the philosophical insights (subproject-1) I analyse the underlying moral experience.
Researcher
(Co-)financing
This project is supported by a grant from the NWO Veni talent programme.
Also see
- VENI grant for research proposal 'Memento Mori revisited'
- Project description on NWO website
- Artikel op Zorgethiek.nu (in Dutch)
Contact
Els van Wijngaarden currently works as a senior researcher for Radboud UMC.
People increasingly wish to have some control over the time and the manner of their dying. This implies various complex choices. This research analyses how our relationship to death is changing and how this is impacting our life, old age, and the manner of our dying.