Dr Els van Wijngaarden is a care ethicist and associate professor in Meaning and Ethics at the End of Life at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. She holds a degree in Religious Studies with a specialisation in Existential Counselling and Health Chaplaincy in Organisations. Her PhD focused the experiences of relatively healthy older people with a strong wish for a self-directed death and was awarded the prestigious Research Prize 2017 of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation. Her ongoing research focuses on ethical and existential questions surrounding death and dying in old age, particularly the role of choice and control and the socio-cultural dynamics shaping contemporary experiences of ageing and dying.