Child Euthanasia is Happening in the Netherlands

As we celebrate a victory after a government committee decided that Canada should not extend euthanasia to people with a mental illness alone, the Netherlands government has confirmed that at least one child has been killed by euthanasia.

The NL Times reported on June 23, 2026 that:

For the first time, a doctor in the Netherlands has ended the life of a terminally ill child, Minister Sophie Hermans of Public Health wrote in a letter to parliament. The special committee established to assess euthanasia for children received the report last year, NOS reports.

The assessment committee has reviewed the case, spoken with the doctor involved, and passed its assessment to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), Hermans wrote. The OM will determine whether the doctor acted in accordance with the law. The assessment committee’s recommendation will weigh heavily in this decision.

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Let’s be clear, the assessment committee recommendations that the Public Prosecution Service are seeking is happening after the death of the child. If the Public Prosecution Service finds concerns with the death, it won’t matter because the child is already dead.

Now that the Netherlands have reported a child euthanasia death, I am concerned about the further spread of this scourge to other countries including Canada.

A report by the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (AMAD) that was tabled in the House of Commons on February 15, 2023 called for a further expansion of euthanasia (MAiD) in Canada by recommending, among other things, that euthanasia be expanded to include children considered “mature minors.”

As bad as euthanasia for “mature minors” is, during a presentation by Dr Louis Roy from the Québec College of Physicians to The Special Joint Committee on euthanasia on September 7, 2022, Roy urged Canada’s Federal government to permit infant euthanasia. Dr Roy suggested that euthanasia of newborns should be allowed in rare circumstances, such as a newborn who may not survive.

Euthanasia of newborns is eugenic, the belief that some lives are not worth living.

Fortunately Canada has not expanded euthanasia to mature minors but euthanasia lobby groups such as Dying with Dignity have been lobbying the Canadian government to make this expansion.

Euthanasia was legalized based on the concept that it would be limited to competent adults who were terminally ill and freely capable of consenting to be killed. Child euthanasia does not fit this paradigm, but the euthanasia lobby was never actually concerned with consent or competence. Those were just sales pitches to create support for the concept of allowing doctors and nurse practitioners to be legally permitted to kill.

LifeNews.com Note: Alex Schadenberg is the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and you can read his blog here.