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 assessment of all cases in 2020, when 26 people were euthanized at the same time as their partners. The numbers grew to 32 and 58 inches the following year 2022.
According to the Dutch media, Van Agt – Prime Minister between 1977 and 1982 and the first leader of the CDA party – was Catholic, but he always chose his own path, together with his wife of 70 years, whom he always called “my girlfriend”. .
The Rights Forum, a pro-Palestinian group that Van Agt founded in his later, more left-wing years, announced the news of their deaths “together and hand in hand” last week. Director Gerard Jonkman against NOS that both were very ill but “couldn’t live without each other”. Van Agt had never fully recovered from a brain haemorrhage in 2019.
Elke Swart, spokesperson for the Euthanasia Expertise Center, which provides the subsidy euthanasia wish of about 1,000 people a year in the Netherlands, said couples’ requests for assisted death were assessed individually against strict standards rather than together.
“Interest in this is growing, but it is still rare,” she says. “It is purely coincidental that two people suffer unbearably at the same time with no prospect of relief… and that they both wish to be euthanized.”
Euthanasia and assisted suicide have been legal in the Netherlands since 2002 six conditions, including unbearable suffering, no prospect of relief and a long-held, independent death wish.
A second specialist must confirm the wish and most cases are carried out by the GP at home.
Although couples only account for a small percentage of euthanasia deaths – 8,720 cases, or 5.1% of all Dutch deaths in 2022 – Fransien van ter Beek, chairman of the NVVE foundation pro-euthanasia, says that many people express this wish. She added: “But it doesn’t happen that often because it’s not an easy path.”