New research from the Australian Catholic University (ACU) is challenging the rise of euthanasia practices within the country and abroad. The data has suggested that there are still many aspects of a “good life” that carry great meaning and can help one to continue to “flourish” even when the end of their days is in sight.
The paper, titled “Flourishing at the end of life,” was published in the journal Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics. In the study, lead author Dr. Xavier Symons, who serves as director of ACU’s Plunkett Centre for Bioethics, noted that the goal was not to romanticize the dying process” and acknowledged that there is a great deal of “pain and suffering that typically accompany it.”
“But … we would like to put pressure on an assumption that some might hold, namely, that flourishing is impossible or exceedingly rare in the final chapters of life. When someone knows that they have two, six, or 12 months to live, they often give increased focus to what they deem to be most important,” the authors wrote.
Dr. Symons surmised that when one finds their life is coming to a close, time that was previously spent on professional pursuits is open for “the cultivation or restoration of close familial relationships or spiritual and religious engagement.”
Flourishing at the end
Dr. Symons went on to express his hope that subsequent studies on euthanasia would focus on the meaningfulness of life’s end. This, in turn, could help people feel less pressure to end their own lives prematurely, a practice that has spread to all six Australian states. He did ponder, however, if there was “enough sanity in the debate” to convince people that committing suicide is not the ideal way to end one’s life.
“The ways in which we say people can flourish at the end of life paradoxically have as their catalyst points of crisis,” Dr. Symons continued. “The idea you could find meaning in suffering is so profoundly counter-cultural today, that it’s assumed to be not even worth considering even by a lot of people who think about the issue of euthanasia.”
Read more from the report at Catholic Weekly.
