End-of-Life Stories Matter

Session Description
Assisted dying has been legal in Québec since 2015, in Canada since 2016, and its provision is bound up with contemporaneous understandings of the role and remit of palliative care. Led by four members of Assisted Lab – an academic, nonpartisan research lab concerned with patient stories of assisted dying – this interactive workshop will explore in detail the relationship between palliative care and assisted dying.
With a focus on stories told by patients in blogs, films, and audio recordings, this workshop aims to clarify the synergies and tensions between palliative care and assisted dying provision in Canada. It will therefore begin with short presentations discussing international variants of this relationship, including in Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France.
The second part of the workshop will consist of discussions, in breakout groups, of fragments of patient stories that deal with the assisted dying-palliative care relationship in Canada and abroad. Each group will be led by a member of Assisted Lab (the ideal participant size is therefore 20 people). The workshop will conclude with each group presenting potentially generalizable principles contained in their respective patient story, and a general discussion of these principles. With a view to maximizing audience participation and debate, the final part of the workshop will seek out the responses of palliative care and other actors to the patient stories.

Session Learning Objectives
Sharpen narrative analysis skills to better understand the relationship between palliative care and assisted dying in Canada and in Québec
Gain an understanding of different cultural models of that relationship, as well as the concrete historical circumstances and personalities that shaped it in different national contexts
Develop communication skills related to discussing merits and drawbacks of medical assistance in dying with people who hold different opinions