Husband and wife, 70 and 71, opted to end their lives together through assisted suicide in the form of lethal injection.
Till Death Do Us Part
Jan Faber and Els van Leeningen were married for almost 50 years after meeting in kindergarten in Friesland in northern Netherlands. Jan worked as a cargo boat operator and played for the country's national youth team before training as a sports coach. Meanwhile, Els worked as a primary school teacher.
The couple enjoyed a lifelong partnership after getting married in 1975. Their shared interest for the sea turned into a career, leading them to buy a cargo boat and setting up a good transportation company. They also had a son who went to boarding school during the week while they lived on the water.
After more than a decade of heavy lifting and hands-on work, Jan struggled with back pain. He did not show any sign of improvement even after undergoing surgery in 2003. His chronic pain ultimately left him unable to work, and the couple decided to move back on land into a caravan.
Meanwhile, Els retired in 2018 and began to show signs of dementia, a disease her father had suffered from and died from. She was officially diagnosed in November 2022, and her medical condition became so debilitating that she struggled to form sentences.
With both of their health declining, Jan discussed the possibility of assisted suicide until the pair finally chose to end their lives together with duo euthanasia.
Like many doctors in the Netherlands, the couple's GP was uncomfortable with accepting their case for euthanasia due to Els' dementia. Her condition can create uncertainty around the patient's capacity to give consent.
The couple then turned to the Centre of Expertise on Euthanasia, which gives advice on assisted dying and has a mobile clinic that carries out procedures in patients' homes.
In the moments before their deaths, the couple was surrounded by friends and family, including their son, who had found his parents' decision hard to take. According to their son, the doctors came in, and everything happened quickly. The medics followed the procedures, which took place in just a matter of minutes.
The couple were administered lethal injections simultaneously by two doctors and died together on June 3.
READ ALSO: California Doctors Push For Laws To Allow Assisted Death
How Is Euthanasia Administered?
The Netherlands and Belgium were the first countries to practice euthanasia or voluntary death, assisted by a doctor. The procedure became legal in the Netherlands when the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act was passed in April 2001 and took effect in April 2002.
Requests for assisted suicide often come from patients who experience unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement. Their request must be made earnestly and with full conviction, which means that they see euthanasia as the only escape from their situation.
A doctor and an independent expert have to judge that a patient is enduring unbearable suffering with no hope of improvement. Patients also have no absolute right to euthanasia, and doctors have no absolute duty to perform it.
It also requires that a decision to die is carefully considered out of the patient's own free will and that there is no other realistic option. In the case of a couple choosing dementia, these conditions should be met for both patients to be assessed by two different doctors.
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