Netherlands Records Its First Case of Child Euthanasia

Julio Tudela / Ester Bosch

(ZENIT News – Bioethics Observatory of the Catholic University of Valencia / Valencia, 09.09.2026).- The Netherlands has recorded the first case of euthanasia performed on a child between the ages of one and twelve since the 2024 entry into force of regulations allowing the procedure for minors with incurable illnesses causing suffering deemed unbearable and with no possibility of improvement. The procedure requires parental consent and an assessment by at least one independent physician.

The commission responsible for evaluating end-of-life cases involving newborns and minors received notification of this case last year and has recently concluded its assessment. This commission reviewed the child’s case file, heard from the attending physician, and submitted its findings to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which must determine whether the physician acted in accordance with current legislation.

Neither the minor’s age nor the illness suffered has been made public.

This is the first case file received in the Netherlands requesting euthanasia for children since the expansion of euthanasia legislation in 2024. Previously, euthanasia could already be requested for infants under one year of age and for children over the age of 12.

It is worth noting that the Netherlands was the first European country to legalize euthanasia, doing so in 2002.

When the Dutch government approved the reform of the euthanasia law, it was estimated that five children per year might meet the eligibility criteria, specifically children with congenital anomalies or metabolic diseases.

This is not the first country to perform euthanasia on a child; euthanasia for children has been legal in Belgium since February 2014, when the Belgian Parliament passed a bill permitting the practice for terminally ill children. Euthanasia was performed on a minor there for the first time in September 2016.

Bioethical Assessment

Extending the practice of euthanasia to minors is a consequence of the «slippery slope» that accompanies the introduction of euthanasia legislation in countries where it is approved.

Causing a patient’s death, instead of supporting them through their illness by providing the necessary care, is an act that is unequivocally reprehensible from a bioethical standpoint. Any attempt to justify it based on a false sense of compassion must be rejected, as it violates the most fundamental right of all: the right to life.

Furthermore, the argument often put forward by proponents of euthanasia, which respects the wishes of patients who request it, loses all validity in the case of patients who lack the capacity to provide responsible, informed consent.

Euthanasia performed on a child, a psychiatric patient, or a severely depressed individual is no less grave than that carried out on adults capable of making their own choices.

However, cases like the one at hand reveal the truly sinister face of a practice that eliminates patients who ought to be cared for and supported. Here, there is no consent, no capacity to assess the consequences of the imposed intervention, and no possibility of subsequently rectifying its effects. The resulting death extinguishes any possibility of future redress.

Furthermore, the issue of pediatric euthanasia highlights the immense responsibility borne by the various parties involved in the process: the politicians who enact the laws, the doctors who prescribe euthanasia, the judges who authorize it, and the parents who request it, not to mention the clinicians who carry it out.

This dramatic chain of events ends the lives of the vulnerable, such as children, who can neither choose nor defend themselves to claim their rights.

The task at hand is to provide support for living through access to quality palliative care. The euphemistic «help to die» amounts to nothing more than killing the patient; it represents neither medical care nor human progress.