Navigating Final Choices

This episode contains strong language. 

Marieke Vervoort was a champion Paralympic athlete from Belgium. In 2016, Vervoort, who had a progressive disease, announced her retirement from professional sports and spoke of her desire to undergo euthanasia.

Today, we hear Vervoort’s story from Lynsey Addario, a photojournalist who documented the end of her life.

“In most of my experiences covering Iraq and Afghanistan and Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur, I’m photographing people who are trying not to die,” Lynsey said. “Marieke was the first person I had really met who wanted to die.”

Guest: Lynsey Addario, a photojournalist who spent three years with Marieke Vervoort.

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Background reading: 

• Knowing she had the legal right to die helped Marieke Vervoort live her life. It propelled her to medals at the Paralympics. But she could never get away from the pain.
• Lynsey Addario spent nearly three years photographing Vervoort as she prepared to die by choice. It became one of the most emotional assignments — and friendships — of her life.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

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