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The approval of the Spanish Law for the Regulation of Euthanasia in March 2021 entails a profound social change that has direct implications for professional practice at all levels of care. There is no information available about the experiences of the professionals participating in the process of implementing the law in our country, nor any guide as to what might represent good practices in euthanasia in the context of the Mediterranean countries. Due to the complexity of the concepts often associated with assisted dying processes (such as suffering, dignity and moral compass), it is essential that systematic and detailed research be conducted on how professionals understand their experiences of euthanasia, and that it be conducted during the initial stages. We intend to carry out a qualitative study with a constructionist orientation to gain insight to the social constructs underlying professionals' initial experiences. It consists of a series of in-depth interviews conducted in two phases: the first being exploratory and the second phenomenological. Sampling will be purposive and substantiated and have the following variation criteria: profession, age, and gender. Participants will be recruited through the Guarantee and Review Commission of Catalonia, and the scope of the study is all of Catalonia. We expect the participation of 31 professionals. The research will be conducted by a multidisciplinary team with the direct participation of researchers from different levels of healthcare, university research centers and civil society through all phases of the study. The expected results are: (a) A detailed description of the experiences of the professionals involved in the implementation of the law; and (b) The identification of the foundations for a guide to good practices in euthanasia in the Mediterranean setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The approval of the Spanish Law for the Regulation of Euthanasia in March 2021 entails a profound social change that has direct implications for professional practice at all levels of care. There is no information available about the experiences of the professionals participating in the process of implementing the law in our country, nor any guide as to what might represent good practices in euthanasia in the context of the Mediterranean countries. Due to the complexity of the concepts often associated with assisted dying processes (such as suffering, dignity and moral compass), it is essential that systematic and detailed research be conducted on how professionals understand their experiences of euthanasia, and that it be conducted during the initial stages. We intend to carry out a qualitative study with a constructionist orientation to gain insight to the social constructs underlying professionals' initial experiences. It consists of a series of in-depth interviews conducted in two phases: the first being exploratory and the second phenomenological. Sampling will be purposive and substantiated and have the following variation criteria: profession, age, and gender. Participants will be recruited through the Guarantee and Review Commission of Catalonia, and the scope of the study is all of Catalonia. We expect the participation of 31 professionals. The research will be conducted by a multidisciplinary team with the direct participation of researchers from different levels of healthcare, university research centers and civil society through all phases of the study. The expected results are: (a) A detailed description of the experiences of the professionals involved in the implementation of the law; and (b) The identification of the foundations for a guide to good practices in euthanasia in the Mediterranean setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ways through which we define fetuses and pregnant women has consequences in matters of abortion rights, in care following pregnancy loss and in the emotional experience of loss itself. Considering that maternal-fetal body, fetus status and maternal subjectivity are ontologically ambiguous, socially and technologically constructed and that they endure political tensions, this autoethnographic reflection on my cervical ectopic pregnancy focuses on how diverse medical-technological devices formed a semiotic and material field that modified my subjectivity making and unmaking a mother and transformed the status of personhood of my embryo from a quasi-child into a sort of cancer. By differentiating maternal status from maternal subjectivity, I also show how in western societies the maternal status of pregnant women is strictly linked to a pregnant body and to an existing and living fetus or embryo, but in the critical event of pregnancy loss, maternal subjectivity can follow other paths, paths that lack social recognition. • This (semiotic and material) network challenges two subjects: mother and child are miscarried at the same time. • The doctor had made my embryo go some development stages back, he made it less human, maybe in order to hurt me less. • What if a 'project' fetus turns literally into a 'tumor' fetus? • Distracted, reckless, disobedient, rebellious, a free spirit. A row of adjectives that singularized our embryo and that made us cry all over again. • Boundaries of life and personhood are not definitive and they have to remain such. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]