In the loving memory of Edith

On his request I met Antoine Przybylak-Brouillard in Namur on 10 december 2015. He interviewed Lieve Thienpont and Tony Van Loon and they recommended him to contact me.

Antoine Przybylak-Brouillard : Candidat à la maîtrise / Masters Candidate ; Faculté des sciences sociales / Faculty of Social Sciences ;  Département de sociologie et anthropologie / Department of Sociology & Anthropology / Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa.

He was a graduate student at the University of Ottawa doing anthropological research on those involved in the right to die in Quebec. Since Quebec has adopted a similar model of assisted death as Belgium he decided it would be interesting to investigate how those involved in Belgium have conceptualized various aspects of assisted death.

The research he was conducting is part of a project, funded by the Canadian Research Council, in part with two other medical anthropologists who are studying assisted death in Canada, Australia, and the UK.

He was interested in discussing my advocacy on awareness concerning psychological suffering and euthanasia.

He defended is thesis "The Meaning of Suffering: Shaping Conceptualizations of Assisted-Death" and sent me a copy.

At the end of the conclusions he wrote : "It is my hope that this dissertation will contribute to the literatures on both suffering, as a concept that is constantly in flux, and assisted-death, as a response to various understandings of what makes up suffering. The research I present focuses on how the concept of suffering is understood in relation to requested death, but does little to address the sources of suffering themselves. It would be interesting for future research to explore what are the factors that lead people to determine that their lives are no longer worth living going beyond categorized forms of suffering (e.g. psychological, somatic or existential) and investigating what creates loss of meaning.
The future of how assisted-death policies shall progress in years to come remains unclear, however what is clear is that the right to die movement has become increasingly popular in a number of places all over the world. Future policies will surely be written in relation to emerging biomedical technologies extending human manipulation over biological life and through the way in which suffering becomes conceptualized. Considering this perhaps the reader should ask themselves - Why is your life worth living?"

Abstract
In recent years the right to die has emerged from the fringes as a global movement - locally tailored - advocating for patient access to medically assisted-death. Although proposed and actualized models of assisted-death vary in method and level of accessibility, a majority of right to die advocates are motivated by a belief that suffering can at times be “unnecessary”.
Based on an overview of the anthropology of suffering and fieldwork in Quebec, Ontario, and Belgium, my research focuses on right to die advocates’ conceptualization of suffering in relation to assisted-death and on how their understanding suffering shapes their views on when assisted-death should be permitted. I argue that those supporting assisted-death are brought in a form of solidarity through the belief that at times suffering is meaningless and devoid of deeper significance.