A Catholic former Dutch prime minister, Dries van Agt, has died by euthanasia, hand in hand with his wife Eugenie. They were both 93.
Their deaths last Monday are seen as part of a growing trend in the Netherlands for “duo euthanasia”.
Although still rare, euthanasia of couples was first noted in a review of all cases in 2020, when 26 people were granted euthanasia at the same time as their partners. The numbers grew to 32 the following year and 58 in 2022.
According to the Dutch media, Van Agt – prime minister between 1977 and 1982 and the first leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal party – may have been a Catholic but always chose his own path, along with his wife of 70 years, whom he always called “my girl”.
The Rights Forum, a pro-Palestinian group that Van Agt set up in his later, more left-leaning years, announced the news of their deaths “together and hand in hand” last week. Director Gerard Jonkman told broadcaster NOS that both were very ill but “couldn’t go without one another”. Van Agt had never fully recovered from a brain haemorrhage in 2019.
Elke Swart, spokesperson for the Expertisecentrum Euthanasie, which grants the euthanasia wish of about 1,000 people a year in the Netherlands, said any couple’s requests for assisted death were tested against strict requirements individually rather than together.
“Interest in this is growing, but it is still rare,” she said. “It is pure chance that two people are suffering unbearably with no prospect of relief at the same time … and that they both wish for euthanasia.”
Euthanasia and assisted suicide have been legal in the Netherlands since 2002 for six conditions, including unbearable suffering, no prospect of relief and a long-held, independent wish for death.
A second specialist must confirm the wish, and most cases are carried out by the family doctor at home.
Although couples amount to a tiny percentage of the deaths by euthanasia – 8,720 cases, or 5.1% of all Dutch deaths in 2022 – Fransien van ter Beek, who chairs the NVVE pro-euthanasia foundation, said that many people express this wish. She added: “But it does not happen very often because it is not an easy path.”