Netherlands, euthanasia cases increase by 10 percent in 2024

Brussels – Data published today (March 24) by the Regional Review Commissions for Euthanasia (RTE) of the Netherlands show an increase in the number of euthanasia deaths from 9,064 in 2023 to 9,958 in 2024. While 86 per cent of the people concerned suffered from advanced physical ailments such as cancer, 216 people chose to end their lives for psychiatric reasons, up from 138 in 2023.

While NVVE, the Dutch Right to Die Society, believes the increase is due to greater societal acceptance of the practice, citing that the country adopts very scrupulous euthanasia practices, RTE experts have urged doctors to be more cautious for cases of psychiatric disorder, especially for younger patients.

The Netherlands legalised euthanasia in 2002: the law states that only a physician may end a patient’s life and only if several conditions exist, including the patient’s own will and the absence of reasonable alternatives. The conditions of suffering that allow this option must be irreversible and may also include dementia and certain mental illnesses.