Conference Program

Abstract Book

Confirmed Plenary Sessions

Dementia and Assisted Dying: International Perspectives on Access via Advance Requests

Internationally, various approaches have emerged to support access to assisted dying for individuals with dementia. Among them, advance requests have gained increasing prominence and are now permitted in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and Quebec. This panel presentation will examine access to assisted dying through advance requests in the context of dementia, drawing on clinical experiences, conceptual frameworks, and empirical findings to illuminate the evolving landscape of practice and policy.

Updates from the New Jurisdictions which have Legalised Assisted Dying Since ICEL4

The international assisted dying landscape is rapidly changing. This international panel presentation will provide an overview of the legal status of assisted dying in jurisdictions which have - or are likely to have - recently legalised the practise - including Spain, New Zealand, Austria, Germany, and the United Kingdom, including the Isle of Man, Scotland, England and Wales. It will also examine the legislative frameworks that have been implemented - or are currently under consideration - in each of these regions.

Global Reflections on Local Issues in Assisted Dying: An International Panel

“What insights can our local experiences offer the global conversation on assisted dying?” As legislative frameworks and cultural contexts vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, each region faces its own unique challenges in the practice and governance of assisted dying. While these issues are locally grounded, they carry broader significance and call for international reflection. This international panel session offers a global journey through five regions—South America, the “Old” European jurisdictions, the “New” European jurisdictions, North America, and Oceania—highlighting distinctive aspects of local practice that serve as valuable points of reflection for the international assisted dying community.

Exploring the Relationship Between Assisted Dying and Palliative Care

End-of-life care is in transition, as the legalisation of assisted dying in more countries broadens patients’ options in unprecedented ways. In many jurisdictions where assisted dying is legal, a substantial number of these deaths occur within palliative care services, placing professionals at the center of a profound change in how dying is approached, experienced, and supported.

This presentation will examine how the introduction of assisted dying legislation is influencing palliative care practice worldwide. Rather than arguing for or against integration, it will explore how services are adapting, what challenges professionals encounter, and how patient choices are shaping new realities in end-of-life care. The aim is to stimulate reflection on how palliative care can continue to uphold its values while responding to the complexity of a rapidly changing landscape.

Keeping Watch: Reflections on oversight and monitoring of assisted dying from the shores of Australia and Canada

Oversight and monitoring are established components of assisted dying systems yet there is a high degree of variation in approaches taken internationally. This session – which is part presentation and part conversation – reflects on existing approaches to oversight and monitoring and considers optimal approaches to these regulatory roles. The session begins by describing the breadth of approaches to oversight and monitoring that have been taken globally in established assisted dying systems. Then, focusing in on Australia and Canada as illuminating comparators, it considers the functions of oversight and monitoring and explores how well form is serving function in this domain. The session concludes with reflections on the future of oversight and monitoring, including whether these two countries, and others, might address these issues differently if they were to take a comparative and critical look at reform.

The past, present and future of assisted dying: a long-term evolutionary lens

Drawing from the idea of the ever-bending ‘moral arc’ within postmaterialist societies, the emergence and evolution of assisted dying as an increasingly accepted and adopted practice is considered. This necessarily entails examining assisted dying through a long-term evolutionary lens, and crucially, a dynamic rather than static societal, cultural, moral and legal context. This may seem straightforward, but has not been very evident in the assisted dying debate to date.We start with reviewing major evolutions observed to date in various jurisdictions with regard to assisted dying regulation and practice: increasing uptake, diversification and democratization. These developments betray the need to consider implementation as a long-term process, to think about what maturation entails, and they also invite attempts at explaining the various forces at play. We then use these insights to look forward and ponder the possible futures of assisted dying. In doing this, we offer a few theoretical-sociological lenses through which developments can be viewed and interpreted as part of long-term evolutions. One is the Diffusion of Innovations framework. Different elements of this framework are used to illustrate the applicability to both the past and future of assisted dying.This exercise is meaningful from an academic, societal and policy perspective. Our ability to model and observe certain evolutions will enable us to anticipate them better, to embed societal debate into a structured frame less prone to normative argumentation, and ultimately to actively steer the evolution of assisted dying in line with ever-changing societal, cultural, moral and legal contexts.