Former Dutch Prime Minister and his wife undergo double euthanasia

The couple lived together for seventy years

The former prime minister of the Netherlands died “hand in hand” with his wife as a result of double euthanasia. Dries and Eugenie van Agt, both 93, died as a growing number of couples choose to end their lives in the Netherlands.

The former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Catholic Dries van Agt, died by euthanasia hand in hand with his wife Eugenie. They were both 93 years old, writes The Observer.

Their deaths last Monday are seen as part of a growing trend in the Netherlands towards “double euthanasia”, the British publication notes.

Euthanasia of married couples, while still rare, was first recorded across all cases in 2020, when 26 people were euthanized at the same time as their partners. The following year the number rose to 32, and in 2022 to 58.

According to Dutch media, Van Agt was the Dutch prime minister from 1977 to 1982 and the first leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal party – may have been a Catholic, but always chose his own path with his wife of 70 years, and whom he always called me “my girl.”

The Human Rights Forum, a pro-Palestinian group that Van Agt founded in his later, more left-leaning years, announced the news of their deaths “together and hand in hand” last week. Director Gerard Jonkman told broadcaster NOS that both were very ill but “couldn’t live without each other.” Van Agt never fully recovered from a brain hemorrhage in 2019.

Elke Swart, a spokeswoman for the Center for Euthanasia Expertise, which grants euthanasia requests to about 1,000 people each year in the Netherlands, said any couple’s requests for assisted dying are assessed against strict requirements individually and not together.

“There’s growing interest in it, but it’s still rare,” she said. “It is purely coincidental that two people suffer intolerably without hope of relief at the same time… and that they both wish for euthanasia.”

As The Observer recalls, euthanasia and assisted dying have been legal in the Netherlands since 2002 for six conditions, including intolerable suffering, lack of prospect of relief and a long-standing, independent desire to end one’s life. The desire must be confirmed by a second specialist, and in most cases the family doctor carries out the euthanasia procedure at home.

Although married couples make up a tiny percentage of euthanasia deaths – 8,720 cases, or 5.1% of all deaths in the Netherlands in 2022 – Francien van ter Beek, chairman of the NVVE foundation, says many people express a similar desire. However, she added: “But this does not happen very often, because it is not an easy path.”