An estimated 0.18 percent of all people over the age of 55 in the Netherlands want to end their lives. That amounts to just over 10 thousand people, according to a committee that researched euthanasia after a full life at the request of the government. More than a third of the older people who don't want to live anymore would like help with ending their lives, the researchers found, NOS reports.
assisted suicide
Jan 30 '20 13:17
Sep 2 '19 12:00
Early next year coalition party D66 will submit a legislative proposal to make assisted suicide possible at the end of a "full" and "completed" life, parliamentarian Pia Dijkstra said in an interview with newspaper AD. The bill is a sensitive topic for Christian parties and coalition partners CDA and ChristenUnie, according to the newspaper.
Jun 5 '19 15:25
A number of international news outlets reported the death of Dutch teen author Noa Pothoven as "legal euthanasia", though this apparently was not the case. The teenager died in a hospital bed in the living room of her parental home in Arnhem on Sunday, according to newspaper AD. In a final Instagram post the day before her death, she reported that she had stopped eating or drinking some days ago.
She slipped into a coma and passed away. "After years of fighting it is over", she wrote on the social media platform. "After many conversations and assessments it was decided that I will be released because my suffering is unbearable. It's over. I've not been really living for so long, I survive, and not even really that. I breath but no longer live."
Jan 31 '18 16:10
The court in Den Bosch found 76-year-old Albert Heringa guilty of assisting his 99-year-old mother in committing suicide and gave him a conditionally suspended prison sentence of six months. The sentence is three months higher than what the Public Prosecutor demanded. This was the fourth time this case appeared in court, NOS reports.
Nov 30 '17 07:32
Slobodan Praljak passed away after drinking poison during a hearing at the Yugoslavia Tribunal in The Hague on Wednesday, the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic, confirmed on Wednesday afternoon. A spokesperson for the Tribunal also confirmed that the former army leader and convicted war criminal died in a hospital in The Hague, NU.nl reports.
Oct 9 '17 19:06
The VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie are now really very almost done with their government agreement, ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Segers said to NOS on Friday afternoon. But he thinks the four parties will have to meet again on Monday.
There will be no meetings over the weekend. The ChristenUnie respects the Sunday rest. "And on Saturday I have other plans", Segers said to the broadcaster.
Aug 15 '17 08:02
The four parties negotiating forming a new Dutch government together reached a compromise on medical ethics issues, AD reports based on a draft text for the government agreement. It says that the government will not make any proposals to expand the euthanasia law to allow assisted suicide for elderly people at the end of a full life, but will make more stem cell research possible, according to the newspaper.
Aug 10 '17 08:55
The end of the Dutch government formation talks between the VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie is not yet in sight, the party leaders confirmed on Wednesday following the first day of talks after the summer vacation. The D66 and ChristenUnie are still struggling to agree on issues of "principle" like abortion and assisted suicide.
Mar 21 '17 08:59
After talking with all 13 elected party leaders on Monday, "coalition scout" Edith Schippers will be meeting with the leaders of the VVD, CDA, D66 and GroenLinks today to discuss a possible coalition, RTL Nieuws reports.
Mar 10 '17 08:54
SGP party leader Kees van der Staaij brutally attacked the D66 and its leader Alexander Pechtold in the Christian debate in Ede on Thursday. Van der Staaij compared Pechtold's "radical secular ideology" with radical Islam, BNR reports.
Mar 9 '17 12:15
Prime Minister Mark Rutte has his doubts about expanding the euthanasia law to allow assisted suicide at the end of a "full life". He does not think that this will be arranged in the new cabinet period, he said in an interview with Nederlands Dagblad on Thursday.
Mar 3 '17 08:43
If it is up to D66 leader Alexander Pechtold, his party's proposal for a "dignified end of life" will eventually be expanded to include people under the age of 75 years. He said this on Nieuwsuur after being confronted with a 57-year-old man who wishes to die, NOS reports.
The man wanted to know why Pechtold's party wants to implement a law that only gives people over the age of 75 the option of assisted suicide. "I have to wait 18 years. I don't want that. I want now", the man said to Pechtold.
Nov 9 '16 12:40
Albert Heringa should not be punished for helping his 99-year-old mother commit suicide, according to an Advocate General of the Supreme Court who studied the case. The court in Arnhem previously ruled that Heringa should not be punished. The Advocate General advises that the ruling be upheld, NOS reports.
Nov 4 '16 15:05
The SGP is focuessed on security and family in its campaign for the elections in March next year. The Christian party wants 4 billion euros extra for Defense, and 1 thousand euros for first time parents, NOS reports
According to the SGP, the world is rapidly becoming more dangerous and a "strong" army is needed to protect against it. "Security comes with a price tag and we have to pay it. Otherwise the price may well be too high." The party wants 5 thousand more police officers and neighborhood officers in villages nad neighborhoods.
Oct 26 '16 13:20
The VVD is very much against setting a minimum age to qualify for euthanasia after a full or completed life. In a parliamentary debate on the government's plan, VVD parliamentarian Arno Rutte called it inappropriate because it would make people who reach that age feel uncomfortable with the idea that their lives are now "complete", the Telegraaf reports.
Oct 25 '16 08:14
Former CDA parliamentarian Frans Jozef van der Heijden and his wife ended their lives together on Friday at the ages of 78- and 76-years respectively. They explain their decision to do so in an obituary published in newspaper AD on Tuesday.
Oct 21 '16 14:14
Psychiatrists in the Netherlands are concerned that the Dutch government's plan to allow assisted suicide at the end of a "full life" will put them in a difficult position, Damien Denys, president of the Dutch psychiatrists association NVvP said to newspaper Trouw.
Oct 14 '16 15:10
SP members Lilian Marijnissen and Renske Leitjen think there is a link between the quality of nursing home care and elderly people's desire to make an end to their life, they said on Twitter in response to to government's plan to allow assisted suicide at the end of a "full life". Other parliamentary parties were outraged
Oct 13 '16 08:17
The Dutch government wants to adjust the Euthanasia Act so that people who aren't sick, but feel that their life is completed, can end their lives with assisted suicide. This will only be allowed under "strict and rigorous criteria", the government wrote to parliament. The majority of parliamentarians support the plan.
Feb 4 '16 13:45
Assisted suicide will remain illegal. It is not necessary to change the law on assisted suicide, the committee Schnabel concludes in its advisory report. The committee was asked to investigate whether people who feel that their life is done and want to die, need additional legal options
Jan 6 '16 14:20
Dutch dentist Mark van N. will not be prosecuted for helping his wife commit suicide, the Public Prosecutor announced on Wednesday. Van N. was arrested in Canada on the grounds of patient mutilation in France. When he spoke to the Canadian police in September 2014, he suddenly confessed to killing his wife in the Netherlands in 2006.
Apr 14 '15 12:48
On Monday the Public Prosecutor in Arnhem put in an appeal and demanded a 3 month prison sentence an one year probation against a now 74 year old man from Bennekom who helped his 99 year old mother commit suicide. The court had found the man guilty, but imposed no penalty.
Feb 12 '15 12:58
The Levenseindekliniek helped 232 people with their request to die in 2014, 98 more than in 2013. The clinic also had 1,035 requests for euthanasia last year, substantially more than the previous year, the Levenseindekliniek announced.
Sep 30 '14 16:57
Doctors in the Netherlands assisted 4,829 people to commit suicide in 2013, representing a 15% percent increase over 2012. The vast majority of cases involved patients suffering with cancer or unbearable pain, according to a report published by the five regional review committees.
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