Physically healthy Dutch woman hopes to become the latest person in the country to end her life by euthanasia – on her 34th birthday

A physically healthy Dutch woman suffering from depression and other mental health problems says she will be euthanized today on her 34th birthday.

Jolanda Fun, who has prepared invitations in advance for her own funeral, told the Sunday Times earlier this month that she hopes to become the last person in the Netherlands to receive a physician-assisted death due to psychiatric problems.

Figures show that 138 people with mental health problems were euthanized in 2023, which amounts to 1.5 percent of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands that year.

Fun told the British newspaper that she has long suffered from an eating disorder, depression, autism and mild learning difficulties – and that she would rather see her life end peacefully than commit suicide herself.

Despite having her family, friends and a small dog, she says life is a constant pain.

Social situations would result in “darkness, overstimulation, chaos in my head, loneliness,” she said. Most of the time I just feel really stupid. Sad, gloomy, gloomy. People don’t see it, because that’s the mask I put on and you learn that in life.’

Fun said on Facebook last year that she was looking for a psychiatrist who was “willing to go on a euthanasia journey with her.”

A year earlier, she said, she had registered with the Euthanasia Expertise Center in the Netherlands.

‘At the beginning of this year I had my first conversation (with the centre) and… […] it was also clear to them that I have tried everything in terms of therapies and medications and that this is therefore pointless for me.

“Only now is there a conversation again and that could take at least a year and a half,” she continued. ‘I have no idea how to get through this time and I’m actually a bit at the end. I’m tired of fighting and I just can’t do it anymore.’

Her Facebook post was made on June 9, 2023. Less than a year later, on April 14, 2024, The Sunday Times published an interview with Fun in which she said her date had been set: April 25, on what would have been her 34th birthday. .

In her conversation with the newspaper, she told more about her decision to – what she called – ‘step out of her life’.

“My father is sick, my mother is sick, my parents are fighting to stay alive, and I want to take my life,” she said.

‘That’s a bit strange. But even when I was seven, I asked my mother if I would be dead if I jumped off an overpass. I’ve suffered from this all my life.’

Fun said she had often sought therapy, but decided two years ago after a conversation with a council member that euthanasia was her treatment of choice.

They told her that laws in the Netherlands allowed assisted death for psychiatric reasons – something that is becoming increasingly common in the country.

“However, the rules are very strict,” she told the publication.

‘Euthanasia is not something you just get, it is a long process… But it is a dignified death: painless, done by a doctor. Your loved ones can be there.”

Besides, she said, “no one will discover you in a terrible state – otherwise you’ll be out of luck and even worse off than before.”

The Netherlands is one of only three countries in the EU where the practice of assisted dying is legal. Human rights organizations argue that this gives people battling a terminal or crippling disease the right to humanely end their suffering.

Data showed that in 2022, 8,720 people in the Netherlands ended their lives via euthanasia – an increase of 14 percent compared to the previous year.

In 2023 this rose again to 9,068, with the number of reported cases quadrupling between 2005 and 2023.

The 2022 figure represented 5.1 percent of all deaths in the country – but the actual number could be much higher as research shows that around 20 percent of euthanasia deaths go unreported, according to Dutch media.

No scientific research has been done to determine a reason for the dramatic increase in the number of people choosing to euthanize themselves, according to the Dutch Regional Monitoring Commissions (RTE), which monitors the deaths.

According to Dutch law, someone who wants to end their life for mental health reasons must meet six conditions.

They must be mentally competent, have a long-standing desire for euthanasia, the decision must be of their own volition, they must be aware of all alternative treatments and there can be no other reasonable solution.

Their suitability to end their life must also be confirmed by independent doctors, and can only be carried out according to very specific guidelines.

The vast majority of euthanasia cases are granted to people over the age of 60 with a terminal medical condition.

However, Sisco van Veen, a psychiatrist and end-of-life ethics researcher at the Amsterdam University Medical Center, told The Sunday Times that a rising trend of euthanasia cases on mental health grounds is “undeniable” and “upward.”

According to The Sunday Times, only one in ten requests for euthanasia is carried out on psychiatric grounds.

Assisted dying legislation in the Netherlands was brought to attention earlier this year in a similar case to that of Jolanda Fun.

Zoraya ter Beek, who lives in a small village in the Netherlands, said in April that she will be “liberated” early next month. She will be euthanized at home on the couch with her boyfriend by her side. The free press reported.

Ter Beek decided she wanted to die after a psychiatrist told her ‘there is nothing more we can do for you’ and that ‘it will never get better’.

Obviously a doctor will give her a sedative before administering a drug that will stop her heart.

When she was just 22, Ter Beek opted to get a do-not-resuscitate badge, something typically worn by the elderly.

Now that doctors have reportedly said there is nothing else they can do to help improve her mental health, she has decided she is tired of life.

The 28-year-old told the newspaper that she has always been “very clear that if things don’t get better, I can’t do this anymore.”

She has decided not to have a funeral and will be cremated. Her 40-year-old boyfriend, with whom she is in love, will scatter her ashes in ‘a beautiful spot in the woods’ that they have chosen together.

“I don’t see it as the departure of my soul, but more as liberating myself from life,” she said of her expected death, admitting, “I’m a little scared of dying because it’s the ultimate unknown is.

‘We don’t really know what’s next – or is there nothing? That’s the scary part.’

Ter Beek carefully planned her ‘liberation’ and told the newspaper that she will ‘lie on the couch in the living room’ and that there will be ‘no music’ playing.

She explained that during euthanasia the doctor ‘really takes his time’ and will first try to ‘calm the nerves and create a gentle atmosphere’.

The doctor will then ask if she is ready, according to ter Beek, and she will ‘sit on the couch’.

The doctor will ask ‘again’ whether Ter Beek wants to continue with her euthanasia, before starting the procedure and wishing her a ‘good journey’.

Ter Beek adds: ‘Or in my case, take a nice nap, because I hate it when people say: “Safe journey”. I’m going nowhere.’

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