Dutch authorities are launching a euthanasia program targeting poor children to ease the burden on the state, as a growing group of leading experts in the Netherlands raises urgent concerns over the country’s rapidly expanding euthanasia regime now increasingly targeting young people and even minors with “assisted suicide.”
The warning comes as officials push policies that critics say are normalizing assisted death in cases involving psychological suffering.
Hirado.hu reports: The experts’ new essay, published by the NLTimes news website on Thursday, suggests that treatment should focus more on procrastination and persistence, as young people’s brains are still developing and they are more vulnerable to peer and social media influence. The essay does not set a strict age limit, but it believes that this approach is “generally justified at least until young adulthood (around age 25).”
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At the same time, they emphasized that the topic should be discussed openly during this period, and they do not categorically reject the possibility of euthanasia for young people.
The professors say that the decision-making ability of those under 25 may be affected by brain development, their condition is less likely to be permanent than that of older people, and they are also more exposed to peer pressure and online influences.
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However, many experts and advocates disagree with the idea presented in the essay. According to psychiatrist Kit Vanmechelen, who also performs euthanasia on young people, such an attitude is a disaster for patients and their families, as it represents another obstacle in an already lengthy and difficult process, and may even lead to an increase in the number of suicides.
Marcel Mennen, head of a foundation that supports those seeking euthanasia due to psychological suffering, said the proposal focuses too much on professional aspects and takes less account of the situation of patients and their relatives.
“The question is whether it is right to keep someone waiting for that long. Even if someone is only 22 years old, they may have been suffering severely for 10 years.”
– NLTimes quoted the head of the foundation, whose daughter committed suicide at the age of 31.
Euthanasia for psychological reasons is rare among young people in the Netherlands: eight patients under the age of 25 received such a procedure in 2023, thirteen in 2024, and seven in 2025. Overall, more than ten thousand euthanasias are performed in the country each year, predominantly due to organic diseases.
