Euthanasia in the Netherlands is regulated by the "Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act" which was passed in 2001[1] and took effect in 2002.
It states that euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are not punishable if the attending physician acts in accordance with criteria of due care.
A regional review committee assesses whether a case of termination of life on request or assisted suicide complies with the due care criteria.
[6] In 2010, the number had been 4,050, and according to research done by the Vrije Universiteit, University Medical Center Utrecht and Statistics Netherlands, and published in The Lancet, that was not more than before the "Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act" took effect in 2002;[7] and the study concluded that In effect, the legislation did not lead to more cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide on request.
[13] In February 2010, a citizens' initiative called Out of Free Will further demanded that all Dutch people over 70 who feel tired of life should have the right to professional help in ending it.
A number of prominent Dutch citizens supported the initiative, including former ministers and artists, legal scholars and physicians.
In 2016, the Dutch Health Minister of the Second Rutte cabinet announced plans to draft a law that would allow assisted suicide in cases without a terminal illness, if the person feels they have completed life.
[17] In November 2023, the political party D66 drafted a bill to give people aged 75 and over the option to have euthanasia if they felt they had completed life.
[21][22] The 2019 suicide of 17-year-old Noa Pothoven led to false reports in English-language media that she had been granted an assisted death.
[23] The euthanasia of 29-year-old Zoraya ter Beek in May 2024, who had been a sufferer of chronic depression, autism, anxiety disorder and psychotraumas, and who decided that she wanted a medically-assisted death, attracted international attention.