2024-02-13 19:01:00
The procedure for accessing dual euthanasia in the Netherlands requires a rigorous review process (Radboud University)
The commitment is “until death do us part.” But for former Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt and his wife, Eugenie, the goal is to leave this life the same way they had spent the last seven decades: together.
The couple, both 93, died “hand in hand” earlier this month, according to a statement from the Rights Forum, a pro-Palestinian organization founded by Dries van Agt. Both chose to die through what is known as “dual euthanasia,” a growing trend in the Netherlands, where a small number of couples have managed in recent years to fulfill their wish to die in unison, usually by a lethal dose of a drug. .
Van Agt, a long-serving politician who had conservative roots but campaigned for numerous liberal causes, served as prime minister of the Netherlands from 1977 to 1982. He later became ambassador of the European Union to Japan and the United States. Joined.
Dries van Agt (EPA/Marcel Van Hoorn)
Photographs of the couple during their decades as public figures often show them walking in unison: waving to crowds through a car window, voting together at an election site and sharing a kiss at a public event.
The Van Agts’ health had deteriorated in recent years, Dutch public radio NOS reported. The former prime minister never fully recovered following suffering a brain hemorrhage in 2019, which occurred while he was giving a speech at a memorial event for Palestinians. Eugenie’s health problems were largely kept private.
“I think it’s, in some ways, beautiful, honestly, that you’ve lived your life together, you’re both seriously ill with no chance of getting better, you’re ready to go and you’d like to go together,” said Maria Carpiac, director of the gerontology program in California. State University at Long Beach.
When it comes to the right to choose one’s own death, the Netherlands is “kind of a model” for any American legislation on the issue, he said.
Dries van Agt and his wife (BN)
At least 29 couples, or 58 people, died together through dual euthanasia in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available from the country’s regional euthanasia review committees. This is more than double the 13 couples who did so in 2020, when the committee began specifically looking at couples, but still represents only a small fraction of the 8,720 people who died legally by euthanasia or assisted suicide in the Netherlands that year. anus.
“This is likely to happen more and more often,” said Rob Edens, press officer for the NVVE, a Dutch organization focused on research, lobbying and education on assisted suicide and euthanasia in the Netherlands.
“We still see a reluctance among doctors to provide euthanasia based on an accumulation of age-related conditions. But it is allowed in the country’s legal guidelines,” he added in an email.
Assisted suicide occurs when a person self-administers a lethal dose while a doctor is present, while euthanasia is when a medical professional administers the dose. Both are legal in the Netherlands when certain criteria are met. (Some groups prefer the term “medical aid in dying,” or MAID, because of the religious and social stigma around suicide.)
Euthanasia is illegal in the United States, but assisted suicide is allowed in DC and at least 10 states: Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, Maine and New Mexico. Eligibility requirements tend to be strict across the country, Carpiac said, but there are differences between jurisdictions.
The Netherlands, a country of nearly 18 million people, has allowed assisted suicide and euthanasia since 2002. It requires people to voluntarily request the termination of their life in a “well-considered” manner, with a doctor’s approval that they They are experiencing “unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement.”
Another doctor then has to agree that the person qualifies, and doctors can choose whether to participate in the procedure. After each death, doctors are required to notify a regional review committee, which examines whether each case was handled legally. Couples seeking dual euthanasia must apply and go through the review process individually, with separate doctors.
“An accumulation of age-related complaints can lead to unbearable and hopeless suffering,” Edens said, explaining the Dutch guidelines. “The expectation is that if doctors are increasingly willing to provide euthanasia when there is a backlog of old age complaints, the number of dual euthanasia cases will increase.”
Research suggests that older Americans have a higher risk of dying following losing a spouse, particularly in the first months following their death.
Although the cause of this phenomenon is unclear, studies have found that grieving spouses have higher rates of inflammation and are at greater risk of heart attacks and strokes, often due to stress-induced changes in blood pressure. blood pressure, heart rate and blood clotting.
“The first thing that came to mind was the effect of widowhood,” Carpiac said, referring to the Van Agts’ choice to die by dual euthanasia. “I have a grandmother who is 96 years old, and she says, ‘I’m not going anywhere!’ But if I had a partner and that person was my everything, and we were both at the end of our lives, would it be worth it if he left without me? Would he die of what he would consider a broken heart? “He would want to have a choice,” he expressed.
The Washington Post
Kelly Kasulis Cho is a breaking news reporter and editor at The Washington Post, based in Seoul. Previously, she spent four years covering North and South Korea as a freelance foreign correspondent, and she also worked at the New York Times and Bloomberg BNA.
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