Eric and the Meatballs (poster)

 Presenters: Rob Butcher PhD and Locky Butcher PhD Candidate

How a simple story exposes profound philosophical and practical puzzles about the nature of personhood and its limits.

• What is in a person’s “best interests” and the flip side, what is “suffering”?
• What is it to be the “same” person through a lifetime?
• What control do I have (or should I have) now over what might happen later?
• What does it mean to be “capable” or capable enough to make a particular decision or “change my mind?”

Join us as we use a simple (and reasonably common) practical problem to illustrate deep questions about the nature of a person, personal continuity through time and the limits of my control over future events. Come prepared to participate, share (and test) your assumptions, and grapple with big questions of personal identity – with dramatic practical consequences for personal life and practical health care.

We will connect Eric’s story and his caregivers’ conundrum with practical issues concerning advance care planning and the implementation of Quebec’s expansion of MAiD to those who make advance requests.