The media is romanticizing the recent deaths of former Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt and his wife Eugenie after they were recently euthanized together. They left behind three children and seven grandchildren.
“He died hand in hand with his beloved wife Eugenie van Agt-Krekelberg, the support and anchor with whom he was together for more than 70 years and whom he always continued to refer to as ‘my girl,'” a statement from The Rights Forum, a human rights organization he formed, read.
Though van Agt and his wife were both age 93, it is unclear what particular ailments, if any, Eugenie was suffering from. Van Agt however, was said to be dealing with the after-effects of a brain hemorrhage he had in 2019. According to his biographer, Peter Bootsma, the former prime minister’s “ability to speak also deteriorated.”
“But the way his life ended is something that characterizes the man,” Bootsma said, “stubborn and autonomous, until the end. I sometimes thought: they have been married for 65 years, what if one of the two is no longer there?”
While euthanasia and assisted suicide have been marketed as dignified deaths and the cases of couples dying together have been viewed as a romantic way to die, euthanasia is not dignified or peaceful or romantic.
The son of a French couple who died together by suicide a decade ago said they had “feared separation and dependency far more than death itself.” Fear, not love, is one of the number one reasons people opt for physician-assisted death. One study from the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that few patients request assisted suicide because they are unable to control their pain or the symptoms of their disease. Rather, most choose assisted suicide out of fears regarding a loss of autonomy, of being a burden on others, and not being able to enjoy life. Van Agt had to give up his favorite activity, cycling, following a fall.
READ: Study: Assisted suicide can be painful, prolonged and inhumane
The fearful reasons people give for choosing assisted death are also common among individuals who are suicidal but are considered young and/or healthy. The only difference is that most of the time, society views suicide as a tragedy to be prevented — unless the person is part of a vulnerable population such as the sick, the disabled, or the mentally ill. Those suicides are celebrated as dignified and, as in the case of the van Agts, romantic.
Physician-assisted death is also not as peaceful as it is marketed to be. According to Dr. Joel Zivot, an associate professor of anesthesiology and surgery at the Emory School of Medicine and an expert on “physician participation in lethal injection,” said in an op-ed for The Spectator that assisted suicide can bring about a painful death.
“[F]or both euthanasia and executions, paralytic drugs are used,” he said. “These drugs, given in high enough doses, mean that a patient cannot move a muscle, cannot express any outward or visible sign of pain. But that doesn’t mean that he or she is free from suffering.”
He added, “People who want to die deserve to know that they may end up drowning, not just falling asleep.”
Euthanasia — which differs from assisted suicide in that the doctor carries out the act of killing — has been legal in the Netherlands since 2002 for individuals who are considered to be experiencing “unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement.” There has been an increase in recent years of individuals undergoing euthanasia in the nation.
According to research, the euthanasia rate varies widely across the Netherlands with age, church attendance, political orientation, and income each playing a role. Regions with a higher proportion of churchgoers have lower rates of euthanasia, while higher household incomes and higher rates of good health are associated with higher rates of euthanasia. This indicates that those who are used to living healthy and comfortable lives are more likely to opt for assisted suicide when they do experience some sort of suffering.
