Till death do us part: Married Dutch couple, 70 and 71, who spent their lives together after meeting in pre-school are killed by lethal injection in double-euthanasia

A devoted couple who spent their entire lives together after meeting as small children have died side by side. It is yet another case of double euthanasia in the Netherlands.

Jan Faber and Els van Leeningen, aged 70 and 71, were married for almost fifty years before they simultaneously ended their lives by lethal injection in early June.

In the moments before their deaths, the couple were surrounded by friends and family, including their son, who found his parents’ decision to end their lives difficult.

“You don’t want to let your parents die,” Jan said of his reaction. “So there have been tears – our son said, ‘Better times are coming, better weather’ – but not for me.” Els agreed and said before her death: ‘There is no other solution.’

Jan, who worked as a cargo boat driver, had suffered from severe back pain for more than 20 years, while his wife was diagnosed with dementia in 2022, which has since worsened.

“I’ve lived my life, I don’t want any more pain,” Jan told the newspaper BBC. ‘The life we’ve lived, we’re growing old [for it]. We believe it has to stop.’

The couple had a lifelong relationship, the first meeting took place in kindergarten. Jan went on to play hockey for the Dutch youth team before training to become a sports coach, while Els became a primary school teacher.

They shared a passion for the sea and spent much of their lives on boats.

This shared interest turned into a career, with the couple purchasing a freight boat and starting a freight transport company.

They had a son, who went to boarding school during the week they lived on the water, and he took him on sailing holidays.

After more than a decade of heavy lifting and manual labor, Jans’ back pain became severe and the couple moved back to land in a caravan.

An operation in 2003 did not help to relieve his pain and he had to stop working.

While Els was still working as a teacher, Jans’ physical limitations and the resulting lower quality of life prompted the couple to consider euthanasia. They joined the NVVE, the Dutch organization for the ‘right to die’.

Els retired in 2018 and started showing early signs of dementia, a disease her father suffered from and died from.

She was officially diagnosed in November 2022, and it progressively got worse to the point where she had difficulty constructing sentences.

The couple’s GP – like many other doctors in the Netherlands – was reluctant to grant their request for euthanasia because of Els’ dementia. This can lead to uncertainty about a patient’s ability to give consent.

The couple turned to the Euthanasia Expertise Center, which provides advice on assisted dying and has a mobile clinic that performs procedures at patients’ homes.

Before their appointment, Els and Jan spent the day with their son and grandchildren.

They played games, chatted and Els went for a walk on the beach with her son.

“I remember we were having dinner that night and I had tears in my eyes when I saw us all eating together,” he said.

On the day they were to die, Els and Jan spent two last hours with their loved ones.

They used the time to share their memories and listen to music – Idlewild by Travis for Els, The Beatles’ Now and Then for Jan.

Then, their son said, the doctors came in and “everything happened quickly,” with the medics following their procedures and then it happened in “just a matter of minutes.”

The couple were given lethal injections simultaneously by two doctors and died together on June 3.

In 2023, 9,068 people died in the Netherlands due to euthanasia – 348 more than in 2022.

Of the 8,720 people who died by euthanasia in the Netherlands in 2022, 29 were couples. In 2021, 16 couples died this way. In 2018, there were nine.

Elke Swart, spokesperson for the Euthanasia Expertise Center, told the Guardian that a request for joint euthanasia from a couple is still assessed against strict individual requirements, and not against the requirements of jointness.

In a similar case to that of Jan and Els, reported earlier this year, a couple who had been together for 50 years decided they wanted to die at the same time.

Monique Wessels, 74, suffered from dementia, while her partner Loes Wasmoeth, 88, suffered from a muscle disease.

In February, attention for ‘duo euthanasia’ came into the news when it was announced that former Prime Minister Dries Van Agt had died in this manner, together with his wife Eugenie, to whom he had been married for 70 years.

Both had been in fragile health for some time after Van Agt suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2019, and felt it was better to die together given their advanced age and declining physical condition.

“The way the Van Agts died is a good example of dying with dignity while maintaining control,” the pro-euthanasia group NVVE said at the time.

The Netherlands and Belgium were the first European countries to legalize euthanasia – voluntary death with the assistance of a doctor – in 2002.

The procedure is strictly regulated in the Netherlands. A doctor and an independent expert must judge that a patient is suffering unbearably without any hope of improvement.

It also requires that a decision to die is carefully considered, comes of the patient’s free will and that there is no other ‘realistic option’.

In the event that a couple chooses euthanasia, these conditions must be met for both patients, assessed by two different doctors. It is therefore extremely rare.

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details