4 years after Noa Pothoven case, Dutch parents legally allowed to euthanize terminally ill children
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS: The Dutch government has made it legal for parents to euthanize their terminally ill children as young as 12. The plan was announced to expand euthanasia regulations to include doctor-assisted death for terminally ill children between one and 12 years old on Friday, April 14.
The government said that the new rules would be applicable to an estimated 5 to 10 children every year who suffer unbearably from their disease and have no hope of improvement, and for whom palliative care cannot bring relief. "The end of life for this group is the only reasonable alternative to the child's unbearable and hopeless suffering," the government said in a statement, according to Daily Mail.
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Noa Pothoven was legally allowed to die
The announcement was made nearly four years after Noa Pothoven, 17, was allowed to die at home after doctors permitted her to stop eating and drinking all together. The Dutch teen from Arnhem felt that it became too much for her to carry on after she was attacked and sexually assaulted on three separate occasions, beginning when she was just 11 years old. Noa made her decision public in a social media post one day before her death.
'I will die'
"I deliberated for quite a while whether or not I should share this, but decided to do it anyway", Noa wrote in the post. "Maybe this comes as a surprise to some, given my posts about hospitalization, but my plan has been there for a long time and is not impulsive. I will get straight to the point: within a maximum of 10 days I will die. After years of battling and fighting, I am drained. I have quit eating and drinking for a while now, and after many discussions and evaluations, it was decided to let me go because my suffering is unbearable."
Before the announcement, children as young as 12 could be granted euthanasia if they wanted, but it was only up to the doctor to conclude that the patient's suffering was intolerable with a positive outcome in sight. The law already provides for possible euthanasia involving terminally ill babies until their first birthday and for children older than 12 under the Groningen Protocol.
Children between 12 and 15 could already ask to end their lives under the laws if their parents agreed, and young adults aged 16 to 17 were already able to request euthanasia but had to inform their parents. In 2002, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia under strict conditions. All cases of euthanasia are required to be reported to medical review boards.
According to figures from the regional euthanasia review board, only one case of euthanasia for a minor aged between 12 and 16 years old was reported last year. Besides the Netherlands, Belgium is also another country that has allowed doctor-assisted death for children of all ages since 2014.