In 2017, a television series that appeared initially unremarkable was released by the well-known American production company HBO: The Leftovers. The opening three minutes unfold like a conventional science-fiction scenario: 2% of the planet’s population vanishes without explanation. No one understands why, how, or—most fundamentally—where these thousands of individuals have gone. From the outset, the viewer encounters the radical opacity of loss, our finitude, and the necessary relation we ma...

Contemporary Western cultures are deeply shaped by ideals of choice, autonomy, and control. This orientation becomes particularly visible at the end of life, where medical technologies, advance care planning, and assisted dying practices promise manageability in the face of mortality. Yet real-life experiences of dying often resist such rational mastery. They are often equally marked by uncertainty, vulnerability, dependence, and profound emotional conflict. In this keynote I will argue that ...