Sexually abused Dutch woman given help to end her life
Papers published recently by the Dutch Euthanasia Commission reportedly revealed that a woman in her twenties was allowed to go ahead with assisted suicide based on psychiatrists' decision that her mental health condition was "insufferable," and it was therefore illegal to deny her life-ending drugs.
The woman, who has not been identified, was sexually abused between the ages of 5 and 15, according to Britain's Independent.
Multiple reports cited the documents published by the Commission as stating the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) the woman suffered due to the abuse was "incurable," enabling the approval under Dutch law of her request for euthanasia.
The Telegraph reports that the young woman was not an isolated case, and in fact, the rate of approved assisted suicides in the Netherlands for patients suffering from mental disorders has increased dramatically since the procedure was first made legal.
In 2010, only two people were granted euthanasia due to "insufferable" mental conditions, while The Telegraph said that number rose to 56 in 2015, according to the documents released by the Commission.
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In remarks likely to cause even greater concern for foes of assisted suicide in Europe, one of the psychiatrists who grants approval for the procedure based on mental illness at the Netherlands euthanasia clinic told The Telegraph she believes doctors are still "too hesitant" to give the nod in such cases.
The psychiatrist, Paulan Starcke, was due to give a speech -- entitled "Condemned to live with unbearable psychiatric suffering, or allowed to die?" - on Thursday at a conference on euthanasia in Amsterdam.
Euthanasia was legalized in the Netherlands in 2002, and the procedure has seen a significant rise in the country since then, with people from across the world traveling to its End-of-Life clinic.