Kids under 12 ‘should be allowed request euthanasia’

Children suffering serious pain with little prospect of recovery should be allowed to request euthanasia, whatever their age, the Dutch association for child medicine has said.

The association has urged an end to the current 12-year age limit for euthanasia.

Instead, the association argues a panel should be allowed access to a child under the age of 12 to assess whether they are mentally competent to take such a decision.

The association was asked last year to draw up their standpoint on euthanasia for minors by health minister Edith Schippers.

They now say the current 12-year age limit is a problem as younger children are also capable of understanding the consequences of their actions.

“The system is regulated for newborns and for children from the age of 12 but not in between,” professor of child medicine Eduard Verhagen said.

“We are talking about extremely exceptional circumstances in which a child is dying and in which we want to offer parents the opportunity to give their child a dignified death.”

Between the years 2002 and 2013 there were just five cases of child euthanasia. One child was 12, the others were aged 16 and 17.

“We feel that an arbitrary age limit such as 12 should be changed and that each child’s ability to ask to die should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis,” said Verhagen, who is paediatrics professor at Groningen University and on the association’s ethics commission.

While children over the age of 12 can request euthanasia if they are terminally ill, suffer unbearably and have parental approval, younger children are left in limbo because “paediatricians are powerless”, said Verhagen. “It’s time to address this problem.”