039 - Flourishing at the end of life (and dying) | Dr Xavier Symons

Episode 39 of Researching happy. I’m Matthew Iasiello, trying to bring you the latest ideas and evidence in wellbeing research, direct from the academics who create it. Dr Xavier SIMMONS is a Director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics at ACU. Prior to this, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Human Flourishing Program in the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. His research interests include ethical issues at the beginning and end of life, conscientious objection, the ethics of resource allocation, and the philosophy of wellbeing. This is a conversation that jumps between two papers by Xavier and his colleagues, one critically examining Aristotle’s concept of Flourishing, and one considering Flourishing at the End of Life (or in dying). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381830157_Flourishing_at_the_end_of_life https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-024-00723-0 It is fascinating work, and the biggest take away, spoiler alert, is the idea that Xavier describes, that there are potentially unique wellbeing experiences that we can ONLY reach in dying. We talk about the ‘risks’ of defining wellbeing as ‘reaching our full potential’ meaning that we really make flourishing unreachable in older age (when we are in physical decline).  This has so many implications for anyone working in aged care, disability, palliative care, and medicine. Thank you again to Xavier for his time, and make sure you share this episode. Check out ResearchingHappy.com to learn more about our upcoming guests and get the chance to submit your own questions for future episodes.