‘Is life a gift that you can return?’ The practice of pastoral care in euthanasia by Protestant pastors

Pastors in the Netherlands are gaining more experience with pastoral care in the context of euthanasia. According to previous quantitative research, there are considerable differences in the way pastors care for parishioners who wish to die by euthanasia. This qualitative study, based on interviews with 22 pastors from the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, describes pastoral care in the context of a euthanasia request and asks two questions: What experiences do pastors report from these settings? And what moral and religious considerations do they have regarding euthanasia? We compare the themes that emerged from our interviews with other prominent models of pastoral care at the end of life. This may help us move towards developing pastoral best practices in the euthanasia context.