The Dutch pediatric association wants to extend the right to euthanasia to children under 12. The Netherlands would be the second country to legalize it after Belgium.
In the Netherlands, terminally ill children over 12 have the right to euthanasia, but now Dutch pediatricians are calling for the legal age to be lowered.
For the Dutch Pediatric Association, children with intolerable pain and incurable illnesses must have the right to die with dignity. They therefore call to follow Belgium, the first country to have adopted a law in February 2014 authorizing euthanasia to minors without setting a minimum age.
“We believe that an arbitrary age limit like 12 must be changed and that the ability of each child to ask to die must be assessed on a case-by-case basis,” Eduard Verhagen, professor of pediatrics at the University of Groningen and member of the association’s ethics committee.
5 minors in 10 years
The association specifies that euthanasia will be allowed for children capable of expressing their own will and only if the parents agree with this decision, as is already the case for those over 12 years old. For children who cannot express their will, pediatricians want to be able to act on the parents’ request after having obtained the agreement of a medical commission.
Prof. Eduard Verhagen specifies that this measure would concern very few children. He recalls that between 2002 and 2012, five requests from minors were accepted. They concerned a 12-year-old child and four adolescents between 16 and 17 years old.
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