Former Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt and his wife legally performed assisted suicide through simultaneous euthanasia this week, a non-profit organization founded by the former Dutch leader said.
Dutch public broadcaster Omrop Stichting (NOS) report On Friday, former Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt, 93, who led the Netherlands from 1977 to 1982, and his wife Eugenie van Agt, 93, were released from legal comfort on Monday. It was announced that he had chosen to take his own life in a collective act of death. In Western European countries it is under the supervision of a doctor.
Gerald Jonkman, director of the nonprofit Rights Forum, which Van Agt founded in 2009, said the former prime minister had discussed assisted suicide options after he suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2019, adding that “If that was the case, that was an option.” Life and suffering became unbearable. ”
Since then, Jonkman said, van Agt and his wife’s health has steadily deteriorated, and that “his health has become increasingly frail and he wants to focus his attention on his wife, children, and grandchildren.” ” he said. Their decision to join hands in assisted suicide stems from a feeling that they “cannot live without each other,” he said.
The couple, who had been married for 70 years, were buried together on Thursday. The Dutch public broadcaster said assisted suicide was strange given that Van Agt was a lifelong Roman Catholic (a faith that preaches against suicide) and a former member of the socially conservative Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). He pointed out that it was a great decision.
But Jonkman said the former prime minister had always been “idiosyncratic” and pointed out that Van Agt “never made sure his views were completely in line with those of political parties and organizations.” .
Jonkman went on to point out that Van Agt also became more “progressive” in his later years, going as far as revoking his membership in the CDA for supporting Israel in its conflict with Hamas, in his view. It even canceled its membership in the CDA for supporting Israel in its conflict with Hamas. “The untold suffering inflicted on the Palestinian people.”
Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt and his wife Eugenie speak with US Vice President Walter Mondale. April 21, 1979. Wikipedia Commons.
Collaborative euthanasia is relatively rare in the Netherlands, with people choosing to end their lives together in 2022 out of around 9,000 medically supervised euthanasias, according to the Dutch Voluntary End of Life Association. There were only 58 people, or 29 couples. (NVVE).
Franchien van ter Beek, chairman of NVVE, said the process sometimes requires interrogating both partners individually to rule out coercion, and that this does not happen very often. Stated.
“Therefore, this is not an easy path as both partners need to be evaluated separately,” she added. “The most important requirement is that there is desperate and intolerable suffering, and the request must be voluntary and well-considered.”
Joint euthanasia requires two doctors to perform the surgery to ensure that both partners die at the same time. NVVE Chairman said: Especially after spending a life together and people merging with each other…you can save yourself the grief, because you no longer have to experience the death of the other person. ”
The expansion of euthanasia in Western countries is becoming increasingly controversial, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Canada under particular scrutiny. Amid public backlash, Prime Minister Trudeau’s Liberal government last month withdrew a plan to expand the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program for people suffering from mental illness.
