In the Netherlands, euthanasia for children under 12 is legal.

Euthanasia for children under 12 suffering from unbearable and incurable suffering, demanded for years by pediatricians, will become possible in the Netherlands, the government said on Friday.

The Executive Director clarified that this is a “small group” of five to 10 children per year “for whom palliative care options are not enough to alleviate their suffering.”

“This applies to children affected by an illness or condition so serious that death is inevitable and (…) expected without any future,” said the Dutch Minister of Health. Ernst Kuipers.

Help for the dying will be possible “when it is the only reasonable alternative for a doctor to put an end to the child’s desperate and unbearable suffering,” he stressed in a letter to Parliament.

The government decided to expand access to euthanasia

euthanasia already legal in Netherlands for persons over 12 years of age who can give their consent, and for children under one year of age with parental consent.

Belgium became in February 2014 the first country in the world to allow euthanasia minors “with discernment” and without age limit.

Following a review of existing regulations, the Dutch government decided to expand access to euthanasia “to include children between the ages of 1 and 12”.

But in Netherlands “If the child cannot ask for it, the father can do it after consulting with the doctor,” he told AFP. Axel Disrepresentative of the Ministry of Health.

According to the government, the regulation should be published this year.

Every year in the Netherlands, the number of people resorting to euthanasia is increasing, according to official figures, last year 8,700 people. suffered the most cancer in its terminal stage.

(AFP)