The Dutch Government does not have to ease its restrictions on assisted suicide after a court slapped down an appeal from a group campaigning for the right to die without medical assistance, reports The Straits Times.
The Netherlands was the world’s first country to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2002, but under very strict conditions.
Assisted suicide is technically illegal unless performed by a doctor who has determined the patient’s suffering is “unbearable with no prospect of improvement”.
The physician must also conclude there is “no reasonable alternative” care and consult another independent colleague, who comes to the same conclusion.
Campaign group Last Will Co-operative (CLW) sued the state in 2022, arguing that these restrictions violated patients’ rights to choose how and when they die.
A lower court found in favour of the state, prompting CLW to appeal to the Appeals Court in the Hague.
But the Appeals Court also rejected CLW’s argument that the assisted suicide ban contravened the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
“The case law of the European Court of Human Rights clearly shows that the Dutch ban on assisted suicide does not violate Article Eight of the ECHR,” said the Appeals Court.
Article Eight enshrines in law the right to respect for private and family life.
A growing number of Dutch people are choosing to die by euthanasia. In 2024, a total of 9 958 people died this way, according to official statistics.
That was a 10% rise from the previous year, according to the Regional Euthanasia Review Committee.
Euthanasia is when a doctor administers a lethal drug to end the life of a patient. Assisted suicide is when a physician gives the patient a lethal substance to ingest.
Meanwhile, Slovenians have rejected a law allowing terminally ill patients to end their lives, according to preliminary results released after a referendum last weekend, reports Euronews.
Around 53% voted against the law while 46% supported it – the no-votes also represented more than 20% of 1.7m eligible voters in Slovenia, which is required by the election rules.
Turnout was nearly 41%, the State Electoral Commission said.
“Compassion has won,” declared Aleš Primc, a conservative activist who led the campaign against assisted dying.
“Slovenia has rejected the government’s health, pension, and social reform based on death by poisoning.”
Parliament in the small European Union nation passed the law in July after voters had backed it in a non-binding referendum last year. Primc and other opponents, however, had forced another vote on the divisive issue after collecting more than 40 000 signatures.
Sunday’s outcome means that the existing law is now suspended. Advocates of assisted dying said they were disappointed but expressed conviction a new legislation would be passed in the future.
Prime Minister Robert Golob said that while the current Bill was rejected, the “challenge we are addressing still remains”.
“This is not a political issue, it has always been a matter of dignity, human rights, and individual choice,” he added.
The law envisaged that mentally competent people who have no chance of recovery or are facing unbearable pain have the right to assisted dying. This meant that patients would administer the lethal medication themselves after approval from two doctors and a period of consultation.
The law did not apply to people with mental illnesses.
Backers, including Golob’s liberal government, have argued that the law gives people a chance to die with dignity and decide for themselves how and when to end their suffering.
Opponents included conservative groups, some doctors’ associations, and the Catholic church. They insisted that the law went against Slovenia’s constitution and that the State should work to provide better palliative care instead.
Several other EU countries have already passed similar laws, including Slovenia’s neighbour, Austria.
The Straits Times article – Dutch restrictions on assisted suicide legal: Court (Open access)
Euronews – Slovenia rejects assisted dying law for terminally ill patients in referendum
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Are the Dutch euthanasia laws a ‘slippery slope’?
The right to assisted suicide long overdue
Euthanasia activist says SA doctors support legalising assisted dying