Global media misreports Dutch teen author’s death as “legal euthanasia”
By Janene Pieters on June 5, 2019 - 15:25
Noa Posthoven with her autobiography Winnen of Leren. [Winning or Learning] (Photo: Noa Potshoven via Winnen of Leren/Instagram)
A number of international news outlets reported the death of Dutch teen author Noa Pothoven as "legal euthanasia", though this apparently was not the case. The teenager died in a hospital bed in the living room of her parental home in Arnhem on Sunday, according to newspaper AD. In a final Instagram post the day before her death, she reported that she had stopped eating or drinking some days ago.
She reportedly slipped into a coma and passed away at her home. "After years of fighting it is over", she wrote on the social media platform. "After many conversations and assessments it was decided that I will be released because my suffering is unbearable. It's over. I've not been really living for so long, I survive, and not even really that. I breathe but no longer live."
In the Netherlands, it is lawful for a patient to issue an advance directive about treatment to their doctor, according to information provided by the Dutch government. The directive can include a “do not resuscitate” order, and it can also be extremely specific about what treatments the patient does not want to receive. This can specify whether or not a patient receives nutrition and hydration intravenously, according to health care workers’ association KNMG [Royal Dutch Medical Society].
It can even dictate instructions to physicians should the patient willfully choose not to eat, and where the patient prefers their life to come to an end. This directive is considered standard medical practice in the Netherlands, and it is not governed by the country's law legalizing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in specific cases.
The story alleging that euthanasia was the cause of Pothoven's death appeared Tuesday on the websites of broadcaster Euronews and British newspaper the Daily Mail, and was later re-written by media outlets globally and in multiple languages. Some issued corrections to the story, including the Washington Post and Euronews, or retracted their work outright. Others, including the Daily Mail, the Daily Sun, New York Post, and Washington Examiner, were still reporting late Wednesday afternoon that the 17-year-old girl from Arnhem died as the result of euthanasia as specified by Dutch law.
In the hours since the articles were published, several comments were posted to social media platforms accusing her, her parents, and her medical care providers of wrongdoing.
The Arnhem teenager struggled with post traumatic stress disorder, depression and anorexia after she was repeatedly sexually assaulted as a child, beginning when she was just 11 years of age. In her award wining autobiography, titled Winnen of Leren [Winning or Learning], Noa describes a life of sexual violence, self harm, suicide attempts, and forced treatment in clinic after clinic. In December last year, Noa told De Gelderlander that she approached the End Of Life clinic in The Hague - without her family knowing about it - to find out if she was eligible for euthanasia.
Her request was rejected, she told the newspaper.
"They think I am too young to die. They think I should complete the trauma treatment and that my brain must first be fully developed", the then 16-year-old girl said to the newspaper. "That is when you are 21. I'm devastated, because I can't wait that long anymore."
According to the Dutch government, “euthanasia” is defined as a doctor administering a fatal dose of a medication to a patient to put an end to unbearable and hopeless suffering. “Physician-assisted suicide” is defined as the doctor providing the fatal dose of a medication, and the patient takes the medication without help and of their own free will. Because physician-assisted suicide means that the patient is provided with a fatal dose of medication, it is not considered physician-assisted suicide when a medical team does not provide treatment to comply with a patient's right to refuse treatment.
There are no rules about what medical conditions may lead to euthanasia, but there are guidelines that doctors must follow before it is allowed. According to the Dutch law governing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, a doctor must determine if a patient meets six specific requirements before granting their request. Aside from being voluntary and well-reasoned, the patient must be enduring unending, unbearable suffering. The patient must also be aware of all potential treatment options, and the physician and patient must both agree that there is no reasonable alternative that can better serve the patient. Upon meeting that criteria, the leading care provider must consult at least one other independent physician about the case.
Once granted, euthanasia or assisted suicide must be conducted with medical precision that follows a separate set of guidelines. Other strict requirements are set out for patients between 12 and 16 years of age. Neither euthanasia nor assisted suicide is allowable under Dutch law when the patient is younger than 12.
Every case where end of life takes place by euthanasia or assisted suicide is reviewed by regional committees including a doctor, medical ethicist, lawyer, and a chairman to lead proceedings. Reviews of each case are provided within six weeks, and if a case is suspect it is then referred to a regional health inspectorate and the public prosecutor’s office.
Those in the Netherlands who are suffering from depression or contemplating suicide may call counselors at Sensoor, 0900-0767 (5 ct./min.), chat with them online, or call their volunteers at a local number. 113 Zelfmoordpreventie is also available 24/7 at number 0900-0133. A list of suicide crisis hotlines outside the Netherlands is available on Wikipedia.
Laura said:
My thoughts exactly. Because at the end of the day what does an adolescent truly know about suffering? In their view it may seem endless and hopeless. Was she told that there is light at the end of the tunnel? That people do get on with their lives even if they suffered hardships?
DeepL Translator said:Noa posthumously became world news; this is what makes her story so special
Henk van Gelder and Paul Bolwerk 06-06-19, 12:09 Last update: 12:15
ARNHEM - The death of 17-year-old Noa Pothoven from Arnhem has become world news. What is so special about her story that journalists from Australia, Germany, England, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and the United States seek contact with De Gelderlander. And that foreign reporters in Arnhem are searching for the family.
Noa wrote a book about her tormented life. The Arnhem girl did not want to live on. She wanted peace of mind. Psychiatrists have determined that there was 'unbearable and hopeless suffering'.
Noa stopped eating and drinking. She was lying at home in the living room on a hospital bed and received medical assistance. The girl died in the night from Saturday to Sunday.
Such a young woman
While still alive, Noa with her sad story, in December last year in De Gelderlander, already got the attention of the international press. Now that the family has actually said goodbye to her, foreign media are traveling to Arnhem. In search of background stories.
Journalists from leading media such as The New York Times, BBC News, and NBC News (American television channel) wonder if and why 'the Netherlands has helped to create an active form of euthanasia' with such a young woman. A misconception that does go viral worldwide. Even the Pope tweeted about it.
Forbidden
"The death of Noa is big news in Italy. Everyone wants to hear her story. It has made a great impression in Italy.
An inside page of La Repubblica on June 5, 2019. © La Repubblica
And now all the more so because Pope Francis has spoken about it", says Elena Tebano, Italian journalist of Corriere della Sera, the biggest newspaper in Italy.
Everyone in Italy now thinks that it's euthanasia or help with suicide. Any form of euthanasia, whether passive or active, is forbidden in our country. Many people cannot believe that, despite all that she has experienced, an underage girl no longer has the will to live.
Prohibited under all circumstances
Noa's life story is very exceptional for British readers,'' says Nick Fagge of the Associated Newspapers in Great Britain. Aiding someone with a death wish is banned in England under all circumstances, truly without exception.
However, there is currently a large public debate going on about the question what to do if someone who suffers unbearable and hopelessly wants to end his/her life, but alone cannot bring that to pass. That is why the case of Noa is attracting so much attention."
Taboo
"It's no different in Germany," says Rob Savelberg, correspondent of N-TV, a German 24-hour news channel. "Death aid is forbidden by law in Germany. It is not for nothing that people with a request for help with euthanasia go to the Netherlands or Switzerland''.
"Given their history, euthanasia is a taboo in Germany," she explains: "In this country they look with fairly large eyes at the way in which the Netherlands deals with these kinds of medical-ethical issues. Well, I do know that Noa is not about active euthanasia but nevertheless this case has made the news here.''
Translated with DeepLTranslator
DeepL Translator said:
DeepL Translator said:D66'er Machteld Versnel (1940-2019) wanted euthanasia, but did not get it.
August 1, 22:16 Domestic Politics
Machteld Versnel in 1994 ANP
Former councilor and former D66-MP Machteld Versnel passed away Tuesday at the age of 78. She had been ill for quite some time.
Versnel joined the city council in Utrecht in 1970, where she stayed for four years as group chairman for D66. In 1989 she joined the Lower House, in 1998 she said goodbye to politics. Until her retirement in 2005, she worked as a civil servant for the Ministry of the Interior.
Machteld and her husband Hans Versnel did not want to spend the end of their lives demented and dependent in a nursing home. That is why, years ago, they drew up a declaration of euthanasia together, in consultation with the family doctor and their children.
A nightmare
"Both Machteld and I have experienced what it means when you are demented," Hans Versnel told EenVandaag in 2017 [in Dutch]. "That was a nightmare for us. That's not going to happen to us."
It happened anyway. Machteld was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2014. Her health deteriorated rapidly: she suffered two deliriums, a sudden onset of confusion, and in 2015 she was hospitalized after a heart attack. In the rehabilitation center she heard that she had to go to a nursing home.
There she had to confirm the written declaration of euthanasia verbally. "I don't want to die at all," she said to the doctor according to her husband. "I have such nice grandchildren!" The written statement was of no further value.
Exuberant singing
In addition, there was no unbearable and hopeless suffering. On Sundays the former politician was singing enthusiastically with the choir. She didn't want to die. She spent the last years of her life in the nursing home.
Painful for her husband, because this was their biggest nightmare. "In the nursing home they say: she doesn't realize that she is here," he wrote to NRC in 2017 [in Dutch]. Before she became demented, she had "never ever" wanted to live like this. Her critical spirit, which was determined never to end up in a nursing home, was gone. "When that is over," she always said, "I don't want to go on anymore."
The issue shows how difficult it is to decide about euthanasia. You can't euthanize someone who says s/he doesn't want to die, said Pia Dijkstra, a strong advocate of the right to self-determination in euthanasia. "I don't see how you can legislate for that either."
"The decision about life and death..." said Hans Versnel, "That's not feasible. I'm annoyed by people who say it's just a decision like any other. A murder party or a whimsicality. That really is not true."
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
D66 working on bill for assisted suicide at end of a 'completed life'
By Janene Pieters on September 2, 2019 - 12:00
Pia Dijkstra . (Photo: D66 / Wikimedia Commons )
Early next year coalition party D66 will submit a legislative proposal to make assisted suicide possible at the end of a "full" and "completed" life, parliamentarian Pia Dijkstra said in an interview [in Dutch] with newspaper AD. The bill is a sensitive topic [in Dutch] for Christian parties and coalition partners CDA and ChristenUnie, according to the newspaper.
The Rutte III government is currently investigating whether there is a need for assistance in dying among elderly people who are tired of life. But according to Dijkstra, CDA Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health is not working fast enough. "I find that very unfortunate. The minister clearly feels the urgency less than I do", she said to the newspaper. "People of old age who are suffering from life must have the opportunity to die at a self chosen moment."
Dijkstra mentioned her 92-year-old father as an example. He does not want to end up in a situation where he can no longer take care of himself. "It would reassure him to have the choice to get out if he cannot function anymore", she said.
The D66 parliamentarian is therefore determined to submit the bill as soon as possible, though she knows it will be some time before it is adopted. "Such a plan requires a lot of consultation and discussion in parliament. It is not a law that you rush through", she said to AD.
Currently euthanasia is only possible for people suffering unbearably due to a medical condition. The proposal for making euthanasia possible for elderly people at the end of a "full" and "completed" life was also submitted during the previous VVD-PvdA government's term. "It should not involve lonely or depressed people. Not for people with problems you can solve in a different way. " the then Health Minister Edith Schippers said. She added that it is very important to protect life, but there are people around who wake up every morning disappointed that they did not die in their sleep. The proposal had majority support in parliament, but not in the Senate.
The Christian parties were dead set against the plan to expand the euthanasia law in this way. And with two Christian parties in the Rutte III government, this is still the case. Christian politicians in The Hague told AD [in Dutch] that they will "bury" this proposal for this government's term. Opponents for assisted suicide at the end of a completed life argue that elderly people should instead be helped to find meaning in their lives again.
In the Rutte III government agreement, the four parties agreed that no new steps will be taken in the field of medical ethics. At the request of the CDA and ChristenUnie, the government agreement also states that more attention will be paid to 'life assistance' instead of 'death assistance'. On the other side, the VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie also agreed that the government will provide more information about the current euthanasia law next summer. The government already launched a campaign to help terminally ill people discuss this last phase of their life with their family and friends.
DeepL Translator said:
