Over 75% of Dutch citizens support the idea of ‘duo euthanasia’ with their partner

The Netherlands is one of the most pro-euthanasia countries in the world, and a new survey reveals just how readily its citizens have embraced the culture of death.

The NL Times reported that three-quarters of Dutch citizens with partners support the idea of duo euthanasia, in which both partners intentionally die together by suicide. The survey was prompted by the recent deaths of former Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt and his wife Eugenie. Not long after that couple died, another Dutch couple — Jan Faber and his wife Els van Leeningen — chose to die together, even though neither had a terminal illness. All four deaths took place last year.

According to the survey, 18.4% of respondents “wholeheartedly” support duo euthanasia, while 53.4% are open to the idea. However, a small majority, 59.8%, did admit that there is a risk of one partner being pressured into dying by the other partner.

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Duo euthanasia has been steadily increasing in the Netherlands; according to the NL Times, just nine cases were reported in 2018. That rose to 34 cases in 2022, and 54 in 2023. Yet these deaths have a serious effect on those left behind, as admitted in the survey. Linda Gorissen, whose parents died in joint euthanasia, had to seek trauma counseling afterward and said survivors should receive better support. “We thought after the duo-euthanasia: and now? We went through it, but we’re still alive,” she said.

The Netherlands has become one of the most extreme nations on the issue of euthanasia, where laws are incredibly lax. People have increasingly been euthanized there for mental illness, as well as for disabilities like autism; even children have been killed.

Meanwhile, studies have frequently shown that people choose assisted suicide or euthanasia not to avoid a prolonged, painful death, but because they fear a loss of autonomy or becoming a burden on their loved ones.