New Zealand

Dr Jessica Young, New Zealand

Dr Jessica Young is a senior research fellow at the School of Health, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Jessica is a qualitative researcher with expertise in the sociology of health, illness, death and medicine. Her PhD (Otago) focused on the perspectives of terminally ill people who would consider choosing assisted dying.

Having been awarded a prestigious post-doctoral fellowship from the Cancer Society of New Zealand, Jessica is exploring dying of cancer without hospice services. As part of this fellowship, she is also researching the experiences of people going through the assisted dying process, their family and assisted dying providers.

She started an assisted dying research network and is leading the first national study on assisted dying, both funded by the New Zealand Health Research Council. Jessica welcomes research collaborations in these areas.

Jessica is also an appointed member of statutory body the Support and Consultation for End of Life NZ (SCENZ) Group.