For the first time since a change in the law in the Netherlands, a child under the age of 12 has died by euthanasia.
The death of the child was confirmed by the country’s health minister, Sophie Hermans, as she presented the annual report by the committee that reviews all late-term abortions and medically-assisted deaths of children to parliament on Monday.
According to the report, the child was under the age of 12 and had been seriously ill, but no further details were given.
Assisted dying for terminally sick children aged from one to 12 has been legal for two years in the Netherlands. Before the change in the law, only newborns and those over 12 could be euthanised.
Under Dutch law, parents must be consulted, the child must be suffering unbearably, and there can be no chance of recovery.
The child’s death has been referred to the public prosecution service, which will decide if doctors complied with the rules surrounding euthanasia.
The committee’s report will be made public shortly, Ms Hermans said.
Under Dutch law, in cases of euthanasia, parents must be consulted, the child must be suffering unbearably and there can be no chance of recovery
Euthanasia in the Netherlands is only permitted if the request comes from the patient and if a doctor agrees that they are suffering unbearably.
The doctor must be satisfied that the patient is not acting under pressure and must obtain a second opinion.
Euthanasia has strong public support in the Netherlands, and the country became the first country to legalise it for those with incurable illnesses in 2002.
Before the law change, there was no clear euthanasia policy for children between the ages of one and 12 because they were believed to be unable to make their own decisions.
In England and Wales, a new attempt to legalise assisted dying was revived last week.
Lauren Edwards, the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood, has announced she will reintroduce the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill to Parliament.
The Bill, previously brought to Parliament in 2024, passed two votes in the House of Commons, but fell in the House of Lords, after peers ran out of time to conclude their debate before the end of the previous parliamentary session in April.
Ms Edwards has threatened to use rarely used powers under the Parliament Act to force it through if the Lords block it again.
Yet her efforts to push through assisted dying legislation in the new parliamentary session have been heavily criticised by other Labour MPs, amid their concerns about the time and political capital being expended on such a controversial issue.
Supporters of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life Bill), during a photocall at Parliament Square in London, ahead of a government petition debate in Westminster Hall earlier this month
Adam Jogee, the Labour MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, said it was ‘insane’ to bring back the ‘deeply divisive and flawed Bill’.
Another Labour MP who is opposed to the Bill said: ‘The Labour Party needs the return of the assisted dying bill like we need a hole in the head.’
Former health minister Ashley Dalton, Labour MP for West Lancashire, who has terminal cancer, said: ‘I’m deeply concerned that supporters are bringing the assisted dying Bill back.
‘Voters put us in power to reduce the cost of living and fix the NHS. We have debated this deeply divisive and flawed assisted dying Bill for over a year and supporters have refused to listen or to make the necessary changes.
‘This Bill would hand sweeping unchecked powers over life and death and our NHS to future governments, whatever their political persuasion.
‘We should not be using more of our limited time and political capital on something that simply isn’t safe or a priority for the people who put us in power.’
Emma Lewell, Labour MP for South Shields, said she was ‘absolutely dismayed’ that the Bill is being reintroduced.
‘Not a single one of our major medical or professional bodies support it,’ she added.
‘A deeply flawed and dangerous Bill that poses a real risk to the most vulnerable in our society.’
David Smith, Labour MP for North Northumberland, said: ‘To bring assisted dying back now after it has so recently failed lacks wisdom.
‘It will only deepen division and distract the Government from far bigger priorities.’
