Euthanasia is to be extended to primary school-age children in the Netherlands, the Dutch government has announced.
Health Minister Ernst Kuipers said that children aged five to 12 years can obtain lethal injections if “life termination is the only viable option to end the child’s hopeless and unbearable suffering”.
The country already allows the euthanasia of gravely ill newborn children under the infamous Groningen Protocol.
According to the NLTimes, Mr Kuipers said he expects the regulations to be implemented within the year.
He said he also expected up to 10 primary school-age children a year to die by lethal injection as a result.
The regulations will work by exempting doctors from prosecution if they perform an approved child euthanasia.
A review committee and the Public Prosecution Service will examine whether the procedure was carried out with due care, meaning scrutiny will only take place after the child has been killed by his or her doctor.
The Netherlands recorded a record number of euthanasia deaths in 2022.
A total of 8,720 reported deaths – including 288 of patients with dementia – represented a 14 per cent increase on the euthanasia deaths from 2021.
It means that 5.1 per cent of all deaths in the Netherlands result from euthanasia.
Belgium already permits the euthanasia of children and Canada is planning similar legislation to allow youngsters to be killed by their doctors.
The Canadian parliament has also approved euthanasia for people suffering from incurable mental illness but has delayed extending the Medical Assistance in Dying programme until 2024 amid a public backlash.
In the online magazine Psyche, Dr Marie Nicolini, a Belgian psychiatrist and ethicist, said there could be no justification for killing people who are mentally ill.
“In a comprehensive review of scientific research on the curability of depression, my colleagues and I found that there is no objective standard of incurability for clinicians to hold on to,” she wrote.
“The commonly used term ‘treatment-resistant depression’ typically means that a patient has had two unsuccessful trials with antidepressants; it is not a synonym for ‘incurable’.”
She added: “Prediction accuracy is, at best, at chance level – like flipping a coin.”
Dr Nicolini also said there was a “consistent finding that among people receiving euthanasia for mental disorders, 69 to 77 per cent are women.
“In my team’s study of Dutch psychiatric euthanasia cases, 36 per cent had a history of severe sexual or other kinds of abuse,” she said.
“Gender-based violence is a major public health issue that affects one in three women worldwide, and for which mental healthcare and prevention are lagging.
“When there is evidence that a policy, particularly one that involves ending lives, may reflect or deepen pre-existing inequities, that should give us pause.”