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A disabled two-year-old child has been euthanised in the Netherlands after doctors and the child’s parents concluded that the toddler was suffering unbearably, despite the child not being terminally ill and being incapable of requesting death.
The case is the first reported use of controversial Dutch rules permitting doctors to deliberately end the lives of children aged between one and 12.
The child, who was almost two years old, had been born extremely prematurely at 26 weeks and suffered severe brain damage. The toddler had cerebral palsy, impaired vision, frequent epileptic seizures, and serious difficulties with breathing and swallowing.
The child could not communicate and had an estimated developmental age of around six weeks.
Despite this, the decision was made by adults on the child’s behalf that continued life involved suffering which could not be relieved. A doctor subsequently ended the toddler’s life late last year.
The Assessment Committee for Late-Term Abortion and Termination of Life in Newborns and Children Ages 1 to 12 has now ruled that the doctor complied with the Netherlands’ requirements.
“All facets of ‘being human,’ regarding motor skills, behaviour, and personality, were severely impaired and were not going to improve,” the committee said.
It added that the parents and doctor were convinced the child was “suffering unbearably and without prospect of relief,” despite medical and non-medical interventions.
The committee concluded that the doctor had “strictly adhered to all due-care requirements.” The Public Prosecution Service will now review the case.
The Netherlands expanded its rules in 2024 to permit the euthanasia of children aged one to twelve in exceptional circumstances involving supposedly hopeless and unbearable suffering, where no reasonable alternative exists. Officials anticipated that the procedure would be used on no more than around five children each year.
Eduard Verhagen, professor of paediatric palliative care at University Medical Centre Groningen, said the ruling could influence future cases, commenting that “many physicians and parents will benefit from this in the future.”
The case exposes the fundamental danger legalised euthanasia regimes: they expand. The Netherlands have now extended euthanasia to people who cannot consent. This toddler never requested death and was incapable of doing so. Instead, other people assessed the value and tolerability of the child’s life and made an irreversible decision on the toddler’s behalf.
Whatever procedural safeguards were followed, the result remains that a profoundly disabled child who was not dying had his or her life deliberately ended because adults concluded that continued existence involved too much suffering, this diminishing his value.
SPUC CEO John Deighan has commented on the case, saying: “The social media backlash has shown how evil this case truly is, but should we be surprised? A nation that kills the infirm and elderly? A nation that has started to kill its mentally ill teenagers? A nation with some of the most liberal abortion laws in Europe? Once you decide some life has less worth than other life the fabric of society crumbles. The Netherlands is proof of that. No country should have a body called the ‘Assessment Committee for Late-Term Abortion and Termination of Life in Newborns and Children Ages 1 to 12.’ That is more dystopian than we could make up.”
He continued, “Westminster and Holyrood rejecting assisted suicide is a saving grace for Britain, but the abortion up-to-birth law in England and Wales and the proposal by the Scottish Abortion Law Review Group still put infants in danger. We must reject abortion and euthanasia in all its facets to safeguard every person from having their lives unjustly ended.”
