By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
AMSTERDAM (Worthy News) – The Netherlands has seen a massive rise in euthanasia amid concerns that too many persons with psychiatric illnesses are among those ending their lives.
As the first country to legalize ending life to eliminate pain and suffering in 2002, the number of persons dying through euthanasia increased by 10 percent last year, according to figures seen by Worthy News.
The regional euthanasia review committees (RTE) showed that the number of euthanasia deaths rose from 9,068 in 2023 to 9,958 in 2024.
While the vast majority of people – 86 percent– had an advanced physical disease such as cancer, 219 people died for psychiatric reasons, compared with 138 in 2023. In 2010, there were only two such cases in this country of 18 million people.
In a statement, the RTE urged doctors to employ “great caution” with psychiatric conditions. The organization said medics should consult a psychiatric specialist as well as an independent doctor who is part of a network of physicians providing information to colleagues on euthanasia.
“The doctor must always call upon psychiatric expertise for these patients,” it stressed. “The aim of this is for the doctor to be well informed and to reflect critically on his or her convictions.”
Worthy News learned of at least one case when a woman had a joyful meeting with a friend and family, drinking her last glass of wine, before choosing euthanasia. She had planned it for three years, citing Alzheimer’s disease.
DOUBTS REMAIN
However, six deaths by euthanasia in 2024 were judged by the RTE to have lacked due care.
Those cases included a doctor who failed to consult a psychiatrist. The doctor granted euthanasia to a woman in her 70s who wanted to die “because, after a spinal fracture, she could no longer fulfill her obsessive-compulsive need to clean.”
Christian groups such as Schreeuw om Leven (“Cry for Life”) have expressed concern about what they view as the Dutch “death culture.”
Cry for Life has organized “pro-Life” marches and other events against abortion and euthanasia practices in the Netherlands.
“I don’t like euthanasia. It’s really suicide packaged in a nice word,” said a 90-year-old Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust in an interview with Worthy News.
In a controversial move, liberal party D66 has proposed a bill that would allow people over 75 who do not meet the criteria for euthanasia but have a “carefully considered” wish to die to seek help to end their lives.
The bill would create a new profession of “end-of-life supporter,” who would have to have at least three conversations over six months with the person making the request. They must be satisfied that the request was “voluntary, properly thought through, and stable.”
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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