New Yorker Article on Death with Dignity and Losing “Levensperspectief”

From the June 22 issue of  The New Yorker magazine, an interesting, thorough — and ultimately devastating — account of recent developments in “death with dignity” movements around the world. The article introduced me to Wim Distelmans, described as “an oncologist and professor of palliative medicine at Free University of Brussels,” and “recognized as a leading proponent” of a 2002 Belgium law “that permits euthanasia for patients who have an incurable illness that causes them unbearable physical or mental suffering.”

In The Death Treatment, author Rachel Aviv uses the diary-based history of a 60+ year-old woman who struggled with depression, eventually losing her levensperspectief, a Dutch word “that refers to the sense that there is something to live for,” to illuminate questions about the scope of any appropriate limits on self-directed death. The article makes clear that “lawful” self-directed death can have long-range consequences for surviving family members, drawing upon a son’s challenge to permissible euthanasia in Belgium as the evidence. A very worthwhile, but not easy, read.