Dying by choice on the anniversary of your birth. It happens in the Netherlands, where a 34-year-old woman, Jolanda Fun, suffering from depression and other mental illnesses chose to resort to euthanasia to put an end to her suffering.
After Belgium, the Netherlands also provides euthanasia for seriously ill children under 12 years of age
History
Fun has long suffered from eating disorders, depression, autism and mild learning difficulties and preferred a peaceful death to suicide. Despite the affection of her family, her friends and her little dog, her life is “constant suffering” for her. “People don’t see it because I’m wearing a mask.”
Last year, on June 9, 2023, Fun in a Facebook post sought a psychiatrist “willing to embark on the journey of euthanasia” with her. A year earlier, she said, she had registered with the Center of Expertise on Euthanasia in the Netherlands. “At the beginning of this year I had my first interview – she wrote – it was clear to them too that I had tried everything in terms of therapies and medicines and that therefore it made no sense to me”. “I’m tired of fighting and I can’t take it anymore.”
Less than a year after the post was published, on 14 April 2024, the Sunday Times published Fun’s interview in which she said she had managed to set the date of her death as 25 April, the day of her 34th birthday. “My father is sick, my mother too, my parents are struggling to survive and I want to get out of life” she said.
The use of euthanasia for psychiatric reasons in the Netherlands is becoming increasingly common. But Fun says that «the rules are very strict: you don’t just get euthanasia, there is a whole process. But it is a dignified death: painless, done by a doctor. And your loved ones can be present.” In 2023, there were 138 people suffering from mental health problems who resorted to euthanasia.or 1.5% of the 2023 euthanasia cases in the Netherlands.
Euthanasia in the Netherlands: request data
In the European Union, only the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg have legalized euthanasia.
2022 was the twentieth year since the law on the control of termination of life on request and assisted suicide came into force in the Netherlands. The Regional Euthanasia Control Commission (Rte) verifies that each request for euthanasia complies with the requirements established in the law. In twenty years, 91,565 requests for euthanasia have arrived. Of these, only 133 did not meet the legal criteria.
In 2022, there were 8,720 reported cases of euthanasiaup 10.5% compared to the previous year (7,666). This also implies a 5.1% increase in euthanasia reports in relation to deaths. The 2022 figure represented 5.1% of all deaths in the country, but the real number could be much higher as research suggests that around 20% of euthanasia deaths go unreported according to Dutch media.
This number increased again in 2023 to 9,068, with the number of reported cases quadrupling between 2005 and 2023. According to the commission, no scientific research has been conducted to explain why calls for euthanasia have increased. According to Dutch law, a person who wishes to end their life for mental health reasons must meet specific conditions.
He must be capable of understanding and will, have wanted euthanasia for a long time, the decision must be made of his own free will, he must have been informed of all alternative treatments and there can be no other reasonable solution. The vast majority of euthanasia cases are granted to over 60 with terminal illnesses.
However, Sisco van Veen, a psychiatrist and researcher in assisted dying and end-of-life at the University Medical Center of Amsterdam, told the Sunday Times that calls for euthanasia on mental health grounds are “on the rise”. According to the Sunday Times, around one in ten requests for euthanasia for psychiatric reasons are carried out.
A similar story
Not only Jolanda Fun, a 28-year-old Dutch girl has also made headlines around the world in recent days for her choice to resort to euthanasia. This is Zoraya ter Beek, a Dutch woman suffering from depression, personality disorder and the autism spectrum. According to the doctors, she has no prospects of improvement.
The 28-year-old, who lives with her boyfriend and two cats, planned to resort to euthanasia in early May. During an interview with the American media The Free Press, Zoraya spoke about how painful it is to live with her mental illness every day, so euthanasia remains the only way to stop suffering. She has decided everything: her death will take place on the sofa at home and with her partner at her side. The doctor will give you a sedative and then a drug. She will be cremated and her ashes will be scattered in a forest near her home.
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