The Netherlands will expand access to euthanasia for children under 12 suffering from a fatal disease causing “desperate and unbearable suffering”.
- The Netherlands has given the go-ahead to allow euthanasia for patients under the age of 12 “suffering from a disease or disorder so severe that death is inevitable”.
- The text which should be published in the year, has been the source of many debates in the country which authorizes euthanasia since April 1, 2002.
- The government estimates that its new regulations affect five to ten children under the age of twelve each year “for whom palliative care options are not sufficient to relieve their suffering”.
The Netherlands announced on April 14 to extend euthanasia, authorized on their soil since 2002, to children under 12 years old. This aid in dying will be offered to young patients “suffering from a disease or disorder so serious that death is inevitable”.
Euthanasia: 5 to 10 children concerned per year in the Netherlands
In a letter addressed to Parliament, the Dutch Minister of Health Ernst Kuipers detailed the device, demanded by caregivers in the Netherlands for several years. “This will concern children with an illness or disorder so severe that death is inevitable and…expected for the foreseeable future”, he explained. Access to euthanasia will be authorized “when it is the only reasonable alternative for a doctor to put an end to the desperate and unbearable suffering of the child”.
The government believes that a “small group”five to ten children under the age of twelve “for whom palliative care options are not enough to relieve their suffering”could benefit from the scheme each year.
Asked about the subject of consent, the spokesperson for the Dutch Ministry of Health, Axel Dees, clarified that “if the child is unable to do so, the parent may do so, in consultation with the doctor”. This new regulation should be published within the year. The authorities of the European country add that an evaluation of the device will be carried out in a few years.
End of life for children under 12: several years of debate
Along with Belgium, the Netherlands is one of the first European countries to have implemented laws governing assisted suicide. Dutch people with serious illnesses have had access to euthanasia since April 1, 2002.
However, the extension of the regulation to under 12s has caused much debate within the nation. “It is a particularly complex subject which deals with very trying situations”acknowledged the Minister of Health in a press release taken up by Le Figaro with AFP.
Before the reassessment of the text, the device was open to patients over the age of twelve who could give their consent as well as to babies under one year old with parental consent. Euthanasia is also at the center of discussions in France. A bill could see the light of day by the end of the summer.
