Psychologist to appeal conviction in connection with assisted suicide

Psychologist Wim van Dijk is appealing his conviction by the court in Den Bosch for providing unlicensed anti-emetics to people with a suicide wish. He was given a six-month suspended prison sentence plus 40 hours of community service for violating the Medicines Act.

Van Dijk has confessed that he gave people packages containing the lethal 'drug X' and an anti-emetic at their request and after a conversation. However, he was not prosecuted for illegal assistance in suicide, because the police have not linked any deaths to the drugs he supplied.

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) previously stated that it could agree with the court's verdict, particularly because the court ruled that the criminal case is inextricably linked to assisted suicide. The antiemetic is considered an essential part of the set with substance X.

Van Dijk believes that "the incorrect and unethical euthanasia legislation that led to his act was not taken into account in the verdict, or not at all", he said on Friday. He also believes that he was wrongly accused of having acted carelessly and frivolously. This undermines his integrity and professional honor, he believes, and he does not want to accept that.