A Dutch review committee has concluded that physicians met the country’s due-care requirements when they ended the life of a severely disabled child who was nearly 2, though prosecutors must still determine whether the doctors complied with the law.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
A Dutch review committee has ruled that physicians acted with “due care” in the case of a severely disabled child whose life was intentionally ended before his second birthday, marking the first case involving a child younger than 12 since the Netherlands expanded its life-termination framework to that age group.
The child had been born at 26 weeks’ gestation and lived with severe brain damage, cerebral palsy and seizures. His developmental age was estimated at approximately six weeks, and he required extensive care. He was not dying at the time physicians and his parents decided to proceed with sedation and termination of his life, according to the case previously reported by LifeSiteNews.
The Netherlands’ review committee has now released its full assessment of the case, concluding that the physician involved satisfied the applicable standards of care.
According to the committee, the child “had multiple, very severe disabilities, both mental and physical, and the prognosis was that the child would be dependent on support with all activities of daily living for the rest of their life,” with a “very high probability of the child dying at a very young age due to complications.”
The panel said physicians had seen no meaningful improvement in the child’s condition.
“In the course of the child’s short life, there was a complete lack of development or improvement,” the report stated.
The parents and treating physicians were “convinced that the child was suffering unbearably and without prospect of improvement,” according to the committee. The multidisciplinary medical team caring for the child agreed with that assessment, as did a physician providing a required independent evaluation.
The process was not without disagreement, however.
According to LifeSiteNews’ account of the committee findings, one group of doctors consulted for a second opinion agreed “there was no real chance of improving the situation and that there was an irreversible situation,” but did not agree “that there was no continuous unbearable suffering at that time.”
Those physicians concluded that “reasonable other solutions existed, such as palliative capabilities and drug alternatives that could potentially lead to better seizure control of the epilepsy.”
The child’s parents ultimately rejected palliative care as an alternative, according to the report.
The treating physician then sought an additional opinion from a doctor outside the physician’s region. That doctor concluded that the child’s unbearable suffering was clearly observable and that it could only be ended in a “reasonable way” by “ending life.”
The committee’s report said physicians repeatedly discussed the child’s condition, prognosis and available treatment choices with the parents because the child could not communicate his own wishes.
“Given that the child was incapable of any form of communication, the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment options were discussed extensively with the parents. As more and more became clear on the basis of medical examinations and in view of the child’s visible clinical deterioration, the parents asked the physician to terminate the child’s life. The physician spoke extensively with the parents about the termination of life, and their position was consistent,” the report stated.
The review committee’s determination does not formally conclude the legal examination of the case.
The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service must still evaluate the circumstances and determine whether the physicians complied with Dutch law. The committee’s finding that the applicable due-care standards were followed will form part of that process.
The case follows a 2024 expansion of Dutch rules governing intentionally ending the lives of children younger than 12 under narrowly defined circumstances.
At the time, then-Health Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Hugo de Jonge described the change as an “appropriate step to meet the identified need from practice and provide physicians with the desired legal protection.”
The Dutch euthanasia system had already generated international debate over cases involving psychiatric and developmental conditions. Previous reports have described euthanasia approvals involving people with autism and young women suffering from depression.
Critics of euthanasia and assisted-suicide systems have also raised concerns about whether disabled or seriously ill people have equal access to alternative treatment and palliative care.
Patients Rights Action Fund Executive Director Matt Vallière has argued that assisted-suicide programs can discriminate against disabled patients in jurisdictions where assisted death is covered while some forms of care are not.
When programs “will pay for every instance of assisted suicide” but not palliative care, Vallière said, “I don’t call that autonomy. I call that eugenics.”
Concerns have also been raised over complications associated with assisted-death procedures.
Live Action’s Bridget Sielicki has cited reports involving assisted-suicide drugs and paralytic agents, saying that “because a paralytic is involved, a person can look peaceful, while they actually drown to death in their own bodily secretions. Experimental assisted suicide drugs have led to the ‘burning of patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to scream in pain.’ Furthermore, a study in the medical journal Anaesthesia found that a third of patients took up to 30 hours to die after ingesting assisted suicide drugs, while four percent took seven days to die.”
Those claims concern assisted-suicide procedures more broadly and are separate from the Dutch toddler’s case.
In the Netherlands case, the central question before authorities is whether the doctors satisfied the legal standards governing life termination for children incapable of requesting euthanasia themselves. The review committee concluded they did, citing the severity and permanence of the child’s disabilities, assessments of his suffering, consultations with multiple physicians and the parents’ sustained request that his life be ended.
The Public Prosecution Service will make the remaining legal determination.
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