Disabled toddler’s euthanasia was ‘reasonable’, Netherlands claims

A two-year-old child with disabilities has been euthanised in the Netherlands, in a case that a committee determined was ‘handled well’.

The anonymous toddler, who had brain damage and cerebral palsy, was the first young child to be killed after the country expanded its euthanasia programme to under-12s in 2024.

In an official assessment of the child’s death, which was carried out last year, doctors claimed that there was “no reasonable way to reduce or end the child’s suffering other than by termination of the child’s life”.

But the review reveals that some medics who assessed the child believed that there were “still reasonable alternatives, such as palliative options and other medications”. The Public Prosecution Service will also review the case.

‘Disturbing’

Pro-life group Live Action commented: “This child’s disabilities were not the problem. The society that would rather put him to death than care for him is.”

This child was not dying; he or she was disabled.

“This case is a truly disturbing example of the problem with euthanasia. This child was not dying; he or she was disabled. Yet, based on a misguided sense of compassion, multiple individuals concluded that the child’s life was not worth living.

“Determining that a person is suffering in order to end that person’s life is completely subjective, as was seen in the doctors’ varied evaluations. There is a danger when the able-bodied can arbitrarily determine worth and quality of life for those they feel are suffering or may suffer in the future.”

Under the country’s Euthanasia Act, a person of any age can be killed if they are deemed to be ‘unbearably suffering’ from a physical or mental condition. They do not have to be terminally ill.

Autistic teen

Earlier this year, it was revealed that an autistic teenager from the Netherlands who attempted to commit suicide was euthanised in 2023.

According to the Regional Euthanasia Review Committees’ 2024 Annual Report, the 16 to 18-year-old boy struggled with overstimulation, “felt misunderstood by others”, and suffered from depression as a child.

Although he had not exhausted treatments for his depression, the report stated that this would not have affected his “autistic spectrum disorder, which was the cause of his problems and the basis for his request for euthanasia”.

In 2024, 219 patients whose suffering was “(largely)” caused by psychiatric disorders were killed by euthanasia. Such cases have been legal in the Netherlands since 2002.