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WORLD NEWS Thursday 29 June 2023
Some Dutch people seeking euthanasia cite autism

or intellectual disabilities

By MARIA CHENG
AP Medical Writer
LONDON (AP) — Several
people with autism and in-
tellectual disabilities have
been legally euthanized in
the Netherlands in recent
years because they said
they could not lead nor-
mal lives, researchers have
found.
The cases included five
people younger than 30
who cited autism as either
the only reason or a major
contributing factor for eu-
thanasia, setting an uneasy
precedent that some ex-
perts say stretches the limits
of what the law originally
intended.
In 2002, the Netherlands
became the first country to
allow doctors to kill patients
at their request if they met
strict requirements, includ-
ing having an incurable ill- Protesters pray outside Dutch government buildings in The Hague, Netherlands, on Monday, April
ness causing “unbearable” 9, 2001, as the Upper House of Parliament began debating registration that will legalize euthanasia
physical or mental suffer- under strict guidelines. Slogan on table reads, “Human considers, God decides.”
ing. Associated Press
Between 2012 and 2021,
nearly 60,000 people were reasons for seeking eutha- it’s also impossible to know sity’s Autism Research Cen-
killed at their own request, nasia. the true number of people tre, said it was “abhorrent”
according to the Dutch Thirty included being lonely with autism or intellectual that people with autism
government’s euthanasia as one the causes of their disabilities killed at their were being euthanized
review committee. To show unbearable pain. Eight said own request. without being offered fur-
how the rules are being ap- the only causes of their suf- Among the eight patients ther support.
plied and interpreted, the fering were factors linked cited by researchers were He noted that many au-
committee has released to their intellectual disability an autistic man in his 20s. tistic people struggle with
documents related to more or autism social isolation, a His record said “the patient depression, which could
than 900 of those people, lack of coping strategies or had felt unhappy since compromise their ability to
most of whom were older an inability to adjust their childhood,” was regularly make a lawful request to
and had conditions includ- thinking. bullied and “longed for so- die. He also said an autistic
ing cancer, Parkinson’s “There’s no doubt in my cial contacts but was un- person asking to die might
and ALS. mind these people were able to connect with oth- not grasp the complexity of
Irene Tuffrey-Wijne, a pal- suffering,” Tuffrey-Wijne ers.” the situation.
liative care specialist at said. “But is society really The man, who was not Dr. Bram Sizoo, a Dutch
Britain’s Kingston Univer- OK with sending this mes- named, chose euthanasia psychiatrist, was disturbed
sity, and her colleagues sage, that there’s no other after deciding that “having that young people with au-
reviewed the documents way to help them and it’s to live on this way for years tism viewed euthanasia as
to see how Dutch doctors just better to be dead?” was an abomination.” a viable solution.
were dealing with eutha- Other countries, including The records also included “Some of them are almost
nasia requests from people Belgium, Canada and Co- an autistic woman in her excited at the prospect of
with autism or with lifelong lombia, have legal eutha- 30s who also had border- death,” Sizoo said. “They
mental impairments. They nasia, but the Netherlands line personality disorder. think this will be the end of
published their findings in is the only one that shares She was offered a spot in a their problems and the end
the journal BJPsych Open detailed information about supported living center, but of their family’s problems.”
in May. potentially controversial her doctors said she could A representative of the
Among the 900 people deaths, providing the best not maintain relationships Royal Dutch Medical As-
with publicly posted case window into emerging and deemed contact with sociation said it was up to
files, 39 of them were autis- trends in assisted dying. Still, others “too difficult.” doctors to decide if some-
tic and/or intellectually dis- its records are limited to In one-third of cases, Dutch one meets the criteria for
abled. A handful were el- what doctors disclose. So doctors concluded autism euthanasia.
derly, but 18 of them were there could be other fac- and intellectual disabilities The group said many cases
younger than 50. tors that weren’t released were untreatable and that involving patients with au-
Many of the patients cited or cases where the pa- there was “no prospect tism were “highly complex”
different combinations of tient’s autism or intellectual of improvement,” the re- and that “age itself is not
mental problems, physi- disabilities weren’t noted. searchers wrote. a decisive factor to deter-
cal ailments, diseases or Because the committee re- Simon Baron-Cohen, direc- mine whether a person suf-
aging-related difficulties as leases only select records, tor of Cambridge Univer- fers unbearably.”q