Parents in the Netherlands will have the option of euthanasia for their children under the age of 12, as announced on April 14 by the government’s website.

Specifically, parents will be able to choose euthanasia for children between the ages of one and 12 if they have exhausted treatment options and if the disease is incurable, according to the proposal presented by Health Minister Ernst Kuipers.

This proposal of the Dutch government had been formulated since 2020 and this provision should be approved within the year.

“The current abortion and neonatal abortion program will be amended and supplemented to include the termination of the lives of children aged 1 to 12 years. This concerns a small group of terminally ill children who are suffering hopelessly and unbearably, whose palliative care options are inadequate to alleviate their suffering, and who are inevitably going to die in the foreseeable future. For this group, ending life is the only reasonable alternative to ending hopeless and unbearable suffering.” the website said in a press release.

The health minister explained that euthanasia will only be possible for patients who are in the final stages of a serious illness and whose unbearable suffering cannot be alleviated by palliative care.

“We are talking about children who are so sick that death is inevitable, who are expected to die soon,” the minister said.

In 2002, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia. In 2007, euthanasia was allowed for infants under one year of age and minors over 12 years of age. Over 91 thousand people have resorted to euthanasia for more than 20 years.