Woman from the Netherlands plans to have euthanasia on her 34th birthday

A physically healthy Dutch woman suffering from depression and other mental health difficulties says she is scheduled to be euthanized today on her 34th birthday.

Jolanda Fun, who has prepared invitations for her own funeral in advance, told the Sunday Times earlier this month that she hopes to become the latest person in The Netherlands to receive a doctor-assisted death for psychiatric problems.

Figures show that 138 people suffering with mental health issues were euthanized in 2023 – making up 1.5 percent of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands that year.

Fun told the British newspaper she has long suffered from an eating disorder, depression, autism and mild learning difficulties – and that she would rather her life end peacefully rather than attempt suicide herself.

Despite having her family, friends and a small dog, she said life is a constant pain.

Social situations would result in ‘dark, overstimulation, chaos in my head, loneliness,’ she said. Most of the time I just feel really s**tty. Sad, down, gloomy. People don’t see it, because that’s the mask I put on and that’s what you learn to do in life.’

Fun took to Facebook last year to say that she had been looking for a psychiatrist ‘willing to go on the euthanasia journey’ with her.

A year earlier, she said, she had registered at the Expertisecentrum Euthanasie (Expertise Center Euthanasia) in the Netherlands.

‘At the beginning of this year I had my first conversation (with the centre) and […] it was also clear to them that I have tried everything regarding therapies and medicines and that this is therefore pointless for me. 

‘Only now there is another conversation and that could take at least 1.5 years,’ she continued. ‘I have no idea how to get through this time and I’m actually a little at the end. I’m tired of fighting and I just can’t anymore.’

Her Facebook post was made on June 9, 2023. Less than a year later, on April 14, 2024, The Sunday Times published its interview with Fun in which she said her date was set: April 25, on what would be her 34th birthday.

In her conversation with the newspaper, she opened up more about her decision to – what she called – ‘step out of life’.

‘My father is sick, my mother is sick, my parents are fighting to stay alive, and I want to step out of life,’ she said.

‘That’s a bit strange. But even when I was seven, I asked my mother whether, if I jumped from a viaduct, I would be dead. I’ve been struggling with this my whole life.’

Fun said she had sought therapy many times, but decided that euthanasia was her preferred course of action two years ago after speaking with a councillor. 

They told her that laws in the Netherlands permitted assisted dying for psychiatric reasons – something that is growing more common in the country.

However, ‘the rules are very strict,’ she told the publication. 

‘You don’t just get euthanasia, there’s a whole journey… But it is death in a dignified way: painless, done by a doctor. Your loved ones can be there.’

What’s more, she said, no one ‘discovers you in an appalling state – or you don’t end up unlucky and even worse off than before.

The Netherlands is one of only three countries in the EU where the practice of assisted dying is legal, with rights groups arguing it gives people battling terminal illness or crippling disease the right to end their suffering humanely. 

Data revealed that 8,720 people in the Netherlands ended their lives via euthanasia in 2022 – an increase of 14 per cent on the year before.

This rose again in 2023 to 9,068, with the number of reported cases increasing fourfold between 2005 and 2023. 

The 2022 figure represented 5.1 per cent of all deaths in the country – but the actual number could be much higher given that research suggests around 20 per cent of euthanasia deaths are not reported, according to Dutch media. 

No scientific research has been carried out to establish a reason for the dramatic increase in people opting to euthanize themselves, according to the Netherlands Regional Monitoring Committees (RTE) that track the deaths. 

Under Dutch laws, a person wishing to end their life on mental health grounds must meet six conditions.

They must be mentally competent, have a long-standing wish for euthanasia, the decision must be made under their own volition, they must have been informed of all alternative treatments, and there can be no other reasonable solution.

Their eligibility to end their life must also be confirmed by independent doctors, and can only be carried out according to very specific guidelines.

The vast majority of euthanasia cases are granted for people over the age of sixty with terminal medical conditions.

However, Sisco van Veen, a psychiatrist and end-of-life ethics researcher at Amsterdam University Medical Centre, told The Sunday Times that a rising trend of euthanasia cases on mental health grounds is ‘undeniable’ and ‘upward’.

According to The Sunday Times, just around one in 10 requests for euthanasia on psychiatric grounds are carried out. 

Assisted dying laws in the Netherlands were put under the spotlight earlier this year in a similar case to that of Jolanda Fun’s.

Zoraya ter Beek, who lives in a small village in the Netherlands , said in April she will be ‘freed’ early next month. She will be euthanized on the sofa in her home with her boyfriend by her side, The Free Press reported.

Ter Beek decided she wanted to die after a psychiatrist told her ‘there’s nothing more we can do for you’ and that ‘it’s never gonna get any better’.

It is understood that a doctor will give her a sedative before administering a drug that will stop her heart.

When she was just 22, ter Beek opted to get a do not resuscitate badge, something that is typically worn by elderly people.

Now, after doctors have reportedly said they cannot do anything else to help improve her mental health, she has decided she is tired of living.

The 28-year-old told the newspaper she has always been ‘very clear that if it doesn’t get better, I can’t do this anymore’.

She has decided against having a funeral and will be cremated. Her 40-year-old boyfriend, with whom she is in love, will scatter her ashes in ‘a nice spot in the woods’ that they have chosen together.

‘I don’t see it as my soul leaving, but more as myself being freed from life,’ she said of her expected death, admitting: ‘I’m a little afraid of dying, because it’s the ultimate unknown. 

‘We don’t really know what’s next – or is there nothing? That’s the scary part.’ 

Ter Beek has carefully planned her ‘liberation’, telling the newspaper that she ‘will be going on the couch in the living room’ and there will be ‘no music’ playing.

She explained that during a euthanasia the ‘doctor really takes her time’ and will first try to ‘settle the nerves and create a soft atmosphere’.

The doctor will then ask if she is ready, according to ter Beek, and she ‘I will take my place on the couch’.

The doctor will ask ‘once again’ if ter Beek wants to go through with her euthanasia, before starting the procedure and wishing her a ‘good journey’.

Ter Beek added: ‘Or, in my case, a nice nap, because I hate it if people say, “Safe journey”. I’m not going anywhere.’

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details