Pol Arch Intern Med. 2017 Apr 28;127(4):261-266. doi: 10.20452/pamw.3979. Epub 2017 Mar 17.
The aim of this paper is to gain some understanding of euthanasia as a Dutch cultural practice, focusing on value orientations that lie beneath the surface of what is made visible in the many national surveys done in the Netherlands. In order to reach this aim, I take 2 steps. In the first place, I give a short sketch of euthanasia as it is understood and practiced in the Netherlands. This is followed by a cultural analysis by the American‑Dutch historian James Kennedy who studied the euthanasia debate in the Netherlands from the 1960s until 1985. Having arrived at some cultural understanding of Dutch mentality, I dive deeper into the understanding of the Dutch value orientations by focusing on the dimension of spiritual care at the end of life. After having defined the concept of spirituality, I sketch the contemporary state of affairs in this area and report how spiritual care in the Netherlands is understood and practiced by discussing the consensus‑based Dutch guideline on spiritual care in palliative care, recent research on hope among palliative care patients in the Netherlands, and an often used Dutch tool for spiritual care: the Ars moriendi model. I end this contribution by sketching how I think that spiritual care at the end of life should be developed further in the Netherlands from a palliative care perspective.
本文旨在深入了解作为荷兰文化实践的安乐死，重点探讨在荷兰进行的众多全国性调查中所呈现的表象之下的价值观取向。为了实现这一目标，我分两步进行。首先，我简要概述了荷兰人所理解和实践的安乐死。接下来，我引用了美国荷兰历史学家詹姆斯·肯尼迪（James Kennedy）的文化分析，他从 20 世纪 60 年代到 1985 年研究了荷兰的安乐死辩论。在对荷兰心态有了一定的文化理解之后，我通过关注生命末期的精神关怀维度，更深入地了解荷兰的价值观取向。在定义了精神性的概念之后，我概述了这一领域的当代状况，并通过讨论基于共识的荷兰临终关怀精神关怀指南、荷兰晚期姑息治疗患者的希望研究以及经常使用的荷兰精神关怀工具：Ars moriendi 模型，来阐述荷兰人对精神关怀的理解和实践。最后，我从姑息治疗的角度，概述了我认为荷兰应该如何进一步发展生命末期的精神关怀。
