@article{aup:/content/journals/10.5117/ANTW2019.2.002.LEMM, author = "Lemmens, Willem", title = "Euthanasie en psychisch lijden", journal= "Algemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte", year = "2019", volume = "111", number = "2", pages = "175-194", doi = "https://doi.org/10.5117/ANTW2019.2.002.LEMM", url = "https://www.aup-online.com/content/journals/10.5117/ANTW2019.2.002.LEMM", publisher = "Amsterdam University Press", issn = "2352-1244", type = "Journal Article", keywords = "psychiatry", keywords = "cognitive empathy", keywords = "suffering", keywords = "euthanasia", keywords = "narrative", abstract = "Abstract Euthanasia and psychological suffering: empathy beyond any taboo? Nowadays, when facing the death wish of a patient, a psychiatrist in Belgium or the Netherlands may legally initiate euthanasia. Proponents of this situation argue that a psychiatric patient’s autonomy and the seriousness of his or her suffering ought to be acknowledged and taken fully seriously. A psychiatrist’s consent to euthanasia will here have to be grounded on an assessment of psychological suffering that cannot be purely medical in character, which in turn will have to depend, for a good deal, on empathy. However, a closer look at such empathy uncovers various paradoxes and leads to the conclusion that a psychiatrist with the kind of empathy that is appropriate to his or her role, i.e., ‘cognitive’ empathy, will resist rather than go along with the patient’s death wish.", }