Drawing on two case studies from large-scale fieldwork carried out on euthanasia in Belgium and assisted suicide in Switzerland, this article focuses on the processes of normalization that structure aid in dying. Normalization takes place through a set of apparatuses only partially derived from current legislation, which underlie the relationships that develop between those requesting aid in dying, healthcare staff, volunteers, and loved ones. The resulting arrangements are specific to each national context, but the empirical data also point to broadly common traits, highlighting new paradigmatic forms of aid in dying in the contemporary era.

Background: Besides major employment disruptions, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated policy responses with specific mechanisms to protect workers' health. In Belgium, most of these policies were negotiated at national and cross-sectorial level but implemented at company level with company-based collective negotiation playing a key role. This study examines the relationship between trade union representatives' perception of social dialogue quality and change in workers' physical and mental health in such a context. Methods: Union representatives were surveyed throughout Belgium between August and December 2021 through an online questionnaire (N=469). We asked about the way they perceived workers' physical and mental health within their companies and explain variations with the self-perceived change in quality of social dialogue as an exposure. We use a modified Poisson regression for binary outcomes on four stratified models that additively account for no control, company characteristics, pre-pandemic self-reported health and COVID-19-related measures. Weights are generated to ensure sector representativeness. Results: 30.1% of the sample reported a worsening social dialogue quality during the pandemic. Relative Risks (RR) of poor physical and mental health when social dialogue has worsened are respectively 1.49 [95%CI:1.03; 2.15] and 1.38 [95%CI= 1.09;1.74] when controlling for company characteristics and pre-pandemic health. Adding pandemic-related measures reduces the risk of both poor mental [RR=1.25; 95%CI: 0.84; 1.87] and physical health [RR=1.18; 95%CI:0.94;1.49]. Conclusions: Although based on self-reported variables, the study shows an association between poor social dialogue quality and poor physical and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic that must be explored further in post-pandemic context.

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