Netherlands mulls rise in popularity of euthanasia

Doctors in the Netherlands have been told to use "great caution" in dealing with euthanasia cases after figures revealed there had been a 10 percent rise in such incidents in the country in 2024.

Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide were made legal in the country in 2002, and it still has some of the world's most liberal laws on the issue.

There is no requirement for a patient to be near death, and the current rules say a doctor can end a patient's life if several conditions are met, such as it being their voluntary, considered decision, and there being no prospect of any change to their diagnosed medical state, which currently includes dementia and mental illness.

Every patient who requests euthanasia must be assessed by two doctors, to confirm the decision of the first, and, if it is approved, a lethal injection is given.

In 2023, there were 9,068 deaths by euthanasia, but in 2024 the figure rose to 9,958. Regional euthanasia review committees say they expect the figure to continue to rise, but cannot explain why that is.

Although the vast majority of recipients of lethal injections in 2024 were suffering from advanced physical ailments, 219 had mental health issues, up from 138 the year before. In 2010, there were only two such cases.

"Although the absolute numbers are still low, there is a recent, enormous increase in requests and euthanasia performed in patients with psychological complaints, especially in young people under 30," Damiaan Denys, a professor of psychiatry at Amsterdam University Medical Center, told The Guardian newspaper.

Physicians have been urged to work with psychiatric specialists when making such decisions, as there is more than just a physical health factor to be considered, and Denys said the age of some patients made it harder for doctors to make accurate long-term assessments.

"It is unclear whether young people at that age can meet the due diligence criteria," he said. "How can one, at that age, determine with certainty that a young person with a still-developing brain definitely wants to die, that life is experienced as hopeless and without prospects and that all treatments have already been carried out?"

Rosanne Hertzberger, a microbiologist and member of the country's parliament for the center-right New Social Contract party, says there has been a "shift" over the issue, which she called "dangerous", and that there needed to be a wider national debate.

But the chair of the Dutch Right To Die Society said the figures showed how euthanasia was increasingly accepted, and that it was being done in a careful way.

"This is something to be proud of as a country and not to be taken for granted, as many foreign countries show," added Fransien van ter Beek.

Euthanasia or assisted dying is currently permitted in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Spain, and there are ongoing political discussions around the issue in the United Kingdom, France, and Ireland.