Wetenschappelijk onderzoek / scientific research

“Sensitive research addresses some of society’s most pressing social issues and policy questions. Although ignoring the ethical issues in sensitive research is not a responsible approach to science, shying away from controversial topics, simply because they are controversial, is also an avoidance of responsibility.” Sieber and Stanley (1988:55).

As a discipline, philosophy asks difficult questions. It seeks to understand phenomena in their own right. As a phenomenologist, I am fascinated by phenomena  that are difficult to talk about, controversial or are considered taboo. I seek to obtain and connect ideas from philosophy, sociology, medicine, existential psychology and cultural anthropology. Since I started working in a medical hospital, I developed a fascination for the medical realm and what medicine in essence is. Academically I gained interest in the phenomenology and philosophy of medicine in 2012, when I read Fredrik Svenaeus' The Hermeneutics of Medicine and the Phenomenology of Health (1999). At that time I was deeply immersed in Heidegger's late thought and sought to connect his phenomenology to philosophy of medicine. I discovered that phenomenology of medicine is rare and often misunderstood by those in the medical field. Currently I am conducting research after non-beneficial treatment in a palliative population with cancer and which existential factors play a role in causing non-beneficial treatment. My primary interest is to develop phenomenological and hermeneutic grounds for understanding critical issues in medicine and palliative care with the hope of achieving a comprehensive (existential) approach to end-of-life care. 

Wetenschappelijke publicaties (scientific publications)

Emma J. Draper, Marij A. Hillen, Marleen Moors, Johannes C.F. Ket, Hanneke W.M. van Laarhoven, Inge Henselmans (2018) "Relationship between physicians’ death anxiety and medical communication and decision-making: A systematic review." Patient Education and Counseling (in-press). 

Kars, M.C., Van Thiel, G., Van der Graaf, R., Moors, M., Van der Graeff, A., Van Delden, J., (2015) "Gatekeeping in Palliative Care Research: A Systematic Review of Reasons." Palliative Medicine, nov. 17