Netherlands euthanasia bill would eliminate existing legal restrictions.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Dutchnews.NL reported that Wim van Dijk, a retired psychologist who founded Stichting Levenseinderegie (Ending Life Management Foundation), who was convicted last year of breaking the Medicines Act for supplying an anti-nausea drug to dozens of people as an “essential part” of a suicide kit, has collected 75,000 signatures demanding that parliament fully decriminalizing euthanasia.

Euthanasia is the act where a medical professional lethally injects a person, usually upon request, with a poison cocktail.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide were legalized in the Netherlands in 2002. Stichting Levenseinderegie want to eliminate legal restrictions that exist within the Netherlands law. Dutchnews.NL reported:

Campaign group Stichting Levenseinderegie wants the decision to be taken out of the hands of doctors and entrusted with specialist “end of life support workers”, with patients having the final say.

Wim van Dijk

The Dutchnew.NL article stated that the D66 political party plans on introducing the euthanasia legislation early next year. The article explained what changes van Dijk is seeking.

van Dijk has argued the current law required doctors to make subjective judgments about a patient’s level of suffering that they could not reliably gauge, leading to inconsistencies.

Doctors can also refuse to grant euthanasia requests on grounds of conscience.

I reported in March 2025 that there were almost 10,000 euthanasia deaths in the Netherlands in 2024 representing more than 5% of all deaths. Euthanasia deaths have been steadily increasing and the oversight of the law has been steadily decreasing. A concerning trend in the Netherlands is the increase in euthanasia deaths based on psychological suffering and the increase in the number of younger people who are dying by euthanasia.

In October 2021 Wim van Dijk, who is also a member of the assisted suicide lobby group, Coöperatie Laatste Wil (Final Wish Cooperative), admitted in an interview that he was involved with more than 100 suicide deaths. van Dijk admitted that his actions were against the law but he said that he didn't care. As stated at the beginning of the article, he was convicted last year of breaking the Medicine's Act.