Assisted Suicide

Netherlands Minister of Health Hugo de Jonge announced on Tuesday that assisted suicide for terminally ill children under the age of twelve is to be legalized. He quoted a study according to which the new regulation will affect about five to ten children per year.

The study shows that "among parents and doctors alike, there is a need to actively end the lives of terminally ill children who suffer hopelessly and unbearably and who will die in the foreseeable future," de Jonge wrote to Parliament.