May 25, 2026
Euthanasia because you are elderly? Dutch Style
In the Netherlands, old age is not a reason for euthanasia. However, there is a little-known exception: if you suffer from multiple unbearable age-related conditions writes Kim Einder.
The small number of people who receive euthanasia for this reason has almost doubled in ten years.
Doctors still find it a complex issue.
Difficulty walking, poor eyesight, poor hearing, becoming incontinent: old age sometimes comes with significant impairments. But in the Netherlands, this does not automatically qualify you for euthanasia.
Just as ‘a life that has run its course’ is not a reason.
Nevertheless, last year there were 475 cases of euthanasia where the reason was the accumulation of age-related conditions. As you can see in the graph below, that number has doubled in ten years.
“The rise can be partly explained by an ageing population: healthcare is so good that we are living longer,” a spokesperson for the Dutch Association for Voluntary Euthanasia told NU.nl.
“Illnesses that used to kill us are now detected in time.”
Yet that does not explain everything, as this type of euthanasia rose more sharply over the past ten years (by 94 per cent) than the total number of euthanasia cases (by 70 per cent).
‘Slowly but surely, more and more people are aware that this is an option, and how to justify it to their GP.
Saying that you’re ‘done with it’ or that your life is ‘complete’ doesn’t mean much to a doctor. But that changes if you say you’re suffering unbearably from various conditions.
Although it’s still not very well known.’
Out of a total of over ten thousand euthanasia cases per year, those few hundred cases of old-age euthanasia therefore represent only a very small proportion.
But why is it that one elderly person in the Netherlands with, for example, hearing, vision and balance problems is not given the green light for euthanasia, whilst another with similar age-related issues is?
It starts with the word ‘conditions’.
An euthanasia assessment is not about symptoms, such as difficulty walking and hearing loss, but about conditions, such as osteoarthritis and presbycusis.
In other words: the causes of that difficulty walking and hearing loss. So you need diagnoses.
“To be eligible for euthanasia, your suffering must, among other things, be deemed to be without prospect of improvement,” says Dr Marc Mulders, who is the medical manager at the Euthanasia Expertise Centre.
Without diagnoses, that lack of prospect of improvement cannot be assessed.
Not always hopeless
For instance, visual impairment could be caused by macular degeneration, a condition that is virtually untreatable. “But it could also be caused by cataracts, which are fairly simple to treat,” says Mulders.
In that case, your visual impairment is therefore not hopeless.
Other conditions can sometimes be ‘remedied’ with aids, such as a walking frame.
Furthermore, the suffering must be unbearable. It is precisely this criterion that makes this category of euthanasia so complicated, explains Gert van Dijk of the KNMG medical federation.
He was involved in drawing up the guidelines for euthanasia.
“In the case of age-related ailments, unbearable suffering depends very much on the individual.
If reading was your favourite hobby and you can no longer do so, that might be far worse for you than for someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy reading.”
‘The law stipulates that, as a doctor, you must be convinced of unbearable suffering,’ he continues.
‘That is much harder to assess in someone with age-related conditions than in someone with, for example, terminal cancer who can no longer do anything.
hereas the elderly person may still be functioning well and perhaps even still does their own shopping.’
‘And don’t forget: performing euthanasia means you’re taking someone’s life, you know.
So you really want to be absolutely certain you’re doing the right thing. That there really are no other options.’
“Her whole body was deteriorating”
When her elderly mother first mentioned euthanasia in 2023, Hilda van der Burgh-Lagraauw had never realised that the symptoms of old age were so unbearable.
Because she put on a brave face, she realises in hindsight. And her mother Jeanette was also enjoying herself in the care home.
“But her whole body was deteriorating. Her speech was very slurred, she had trouble walking, her balance was poor. And that despite the fact that she had always loved walking and cycling. She didn’t want to be confined to bed at all.
Van der Burgh-Lagraauw had to overcome a mental barrier to accept her mother’s wish for euthanasia, as she was not terminally ill. “You’re simply committing suicide,” I said to her at first.”
‘But then I thought: what am I doing to her by expecting her to stay alive? Just because I like dropping by once or twice a week for a cup of coffee and to give her a hug?
Whilst she spends the rest of every day hunched over in a chair and falls over when she stands up?’
The 83-year-old Jeanette’s condition was unbearable and hopeless, concluded the GP, after which her wish for euthanasia was granted. But not every doctor gives the green light.
“Some don’t want to do it for personal reasons. Others aren’t sure exactly when it is or isn’t permitted,” says Mulders.
Most complex requests
The centre of expertise supports doctors who are unsure, but also helps those requesting euthanasia whose treating doctor has refused. “Euthanasia is, of course, always complex.
But generally speaking, a combination of age-related conditions is one of the most complex requests for a doctor, alongside dementia and psychiatric conditions.”
And what about a ‘life that feels complete’? For those with many age-related conditions, life can truly feel complete.
But this can sometimes cause confusion, because for doctors, that term has absolutely nothing to do with medical complaints.
Mulders: “In our jargon, ‘a life that feels complete’ means, for example, that someone has achieved all their goals, the children and grandchildren have left home, many of their peers have already passed away, someone can no longer keep up with modern technology or no longer feels part of society.
And so it’s ‘been a good life’.”
“That too can constitute very serious suffering. But it has no medical cause, so it is not grounds for euthanasia.”