‘Los’ by Tom Naegels

Tom is a young newspaper journalist in the Belgian city of Antwerp at the beginning of the twenty-first century. He reports on various events in the city. Meanwhile, there is a lot of turmoil in his personal life. One of his grandfathers, Bert, died a few months ago from prostate cancer. Although he had asked several times to be allowed to die, his euthanasia request was denied until he was, in Tom’s words, ‘really almost dead’. Tom wonders what the point of euthanasia is if such severe suffering is only shortened by one day. Now Tom’s other grandfather, Bob, is seriously ill. He also suffers from cancer and wants to die, especially because of the incontinence, loss of dignity and mental suffering he experiences as a result of his medical condition. Tom comes from a progressive family that strongly supports the possibility of euthanasia. However, Tom and his mother discover that being in favor of euthanasia in theory is very different from dealing with a loved one who wants to die; it brings about some ambivalent feelings. Although Tom and his mother still advocate for Bob’s right to self-determination, this has little effect on the doctors they speak to. These doctors emphasize the importance the law assigns to the necessity of unbearable and hopeless suffering, which they believe is not present in Bob’s case.  As a narrator, Tom creates an opposition between his grandfather’s own assessment of his suffering and that of the doctors. According to Tom, the doctors do not care about his grandfather’s existential suffering. They adopt a narrow definition of medically classifiable suffering, from which they – without problematizing their own position – claim that Bob’s situation does not meet the requirements of the law.  Ultimately, Bob dies by deciding to stop eating and drinking.

Although at the beginning of the novel Tom suggests to his grandfather that he still has a good life expectancy, as time goes on he increasingly endorses the importance of Bob’s autonomous choice. Remarkably, a part of the Belgian law concerning euthanasia (Wet betreffende de euthanasie) is included in the novel, with annotations by the narrator. When it comes to the conditions for granting euthanasia, Tom concludes that Bob’s request is certainly voluntary, well-considered, and repeated. He also notes that his grandfather is not in a medically hopeless condition, yet criticizes the scope of the concept of suffering in the law and interpretations by doctors. In a later passage, Tom berates what he calls the ‘curious ethical distinction’ between ‘the quick, clean’ death that the doctors do not grant Bob and ‘the dirty, slow death’ – by stopping eating and drinking – that they do deem permissible. Furthermore, Tom makes other substantive comments on the law: he is critical of the one-month waiting period (between the patient’s written request and the performance of euthanasia) and raises the question of who determines if there is still a reasonable alternative solution to the patient’s suffering (the patient themselves or the doctor). Thus, Los contains a critique of doctors’ attitudes and advocates legislation in which patients’ right to self-determination is more important.