The WeCare: End-of-Life Care Chair at UIC Barcelona held its fourth annual workshop and on this occasion tackled the way to evaluate and tackle the wish to hasten death in clinical practice in a fully practical way. Using role playing techniques two typical situations arose in which the wish to hasten death was manifested. Dr Josep Porta talked about the scientific evidence for a proactive evaluation of the wish to hasten death and provided a commentary of a study that researchers for the Chair are currently carrying out. There was a lot of participation in the open debate, mainly from clinical professionals, who asked about specific patient cases: “I am fine but I have three months to live” a patient said to me, “do you suffer more by keeping quiet about death or by facing it?” “Should we ask or should we not?” “With family members or without them? ". Some of the professionals who are psychologists talked about existential techniques, dignity therapy and demoralisation syndrome, among other issues.
Dr Cristina Monforte, Co-Director of the Chair, presented research progress in the field of the wish to hasten death and Dr Evert van Leeuwen and Dr Johan Menten talked about the wish to hasten death in various cultural contexts and the Belgian perspective, respectively. On the other hand, Dr Marina Martínez and Dr María Nabal talked about the impact of cultural and ethical factors on the wish to hasten death.
