The WeCare Chair: End-of-Life Care at UIC Barcelona took part on 13 June in the online seminar “Wish to Hasten Death and Euthanasia. Clinical Challenges in the New Uruguayan Legal Context”, organised by the Uruguayan Society of Medicine and Palliative Care.
The session, aimed at professionals in medicine, nursing, psychology, social work and bioethics, brought together more than 100 palliative care professionals from Uruguay. As part of the seminar, Dr Joaquim Julià-Torras and Dr Cristina Monforte-Royo, co-directors of the WeCare Chair, delivered the clinical workshop “The Wish to Hasten Death (WTHD)”.
During the workshop, participants explored the wish to hasten death as a complex phenomenon, reactive to suffering and multidimensional in nature. The session addressed its definition and related factors, its clinical assessment, and the role of healthcare professionals when this wish is expressed by patients with advanced illness.
The workshop also included clinical case discussions focused on the proactive assessment of the wish to hasten death and requests for euthanasia, with the aim of providing practical tools to identify, understand and accompany patients’ suffering.
The participation of the WeCare Chair in this seminar reinforces its commitment to education, research and knowledge transfer in the field of palliative care and comprehensive end-of-life care, as well as its collaboration with international institutions committed to improving care for people with palliative needs.
