Abstract · Attitudes towards death and the presence of death taboo among middle-aged women
Death is denied by and is a taboo in society. The aim of this study is to investigate the questions: 'What are the attitudes towards death of those middle-aged women who actively deal with the broader topic of death and have already been in contact with the Életvégi Tervezés Alapítvány (End-of-Life Planning Foundation) and how have they experienced the taboo of death in their lives so far?'
The qualitative pilot study was conducted using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method. IPA is a person-centred method to explore people's observations, and, therefore, it may be particularly appropriate for research on such sensitive topics as death. The study sought to explore the personal experiences of the respondents and the similarities between them.
During the interviews several themes related to the experience of death were highlighted. These were divided into five main common themes with the following titles: (1) The social component of attitudes to death, describing the fact that attitudes to death and the taboo have a connection to society. (2) The evaluation of death, showing the prejudices in society against people dealing with death caused by the death taboo. (3) The personal normalisation of death, revealing the respondents' own feelings towards death, such as relief from the fear of death, peace and permission. (4) The activities related to death and the feelings associated with it, showing the background motivations for engaging with the topic of death and the feelings associated with it. Finally: (5) The narratives of death experiences, describing the personal development of the three women following the death experiences.
The results indicated that there is still a need to alleviate the death taboo, as there is a need for discussion, for the lack of it creates a sense of loneliness/misunderstanding among the subjects. It also highlighted the motivational background of dealing with death, which may help to alleviate death taboo in the future.

Abstract · The paper first delineates the Belgian law on euthanasia. Then it briefly describes some elements of Belgium’s experience with the law in an interpretive way. These elements - the serious and incurable disorder criterion, euthanasia of patients diagnosed with mental illnesses, and the relation between palliative care and euthanasia – are amongst the main challanges of the current debate.