A doctor in the Netherlands assisted in the death of a terminally ill child aged between 1 and 12 for the first time, a Dutch minister told lawmakers.
Sophie Hermans, the minister of health, welfare and sport, disclosed the death in a letter this week to the Dutch House of Representatives. Assistance in death for children in this age range has been legal under certain rules since 2024.
She wrote that it had been reported late last year to an expert committee that reviews such cases, and was its first notification for a child between 1 and 12.
Ms. Hermans’s letter referred to “a termination of life” without giving specifics. The government did not release any details about the child or the child’s illness, and declined additional comment.
The committee, which meets every two months, discussed the case and heard from the physician in question during its first meetings of 2026, according to the letter.
As required by the law, the committee reviewed the doctor’s actions to determine whether the procedure was in accordance with the rules. Public prosecutors will review the case and make an independent judgment as well. Those conclusions were not yet made public.
In 2020, the Dutch government announced plans to allow doctors to end the lives of terminally ill children who are under 13 years old. Hugo de Jonge, the health minister at the time, predicted that the rule — which went into effect in 2024 — would facilitate the deaths of about five children a year.
Before the rule change, the country already allowed doctors to assist the deaths of people who are over 12 or less than a year old as long as their parents had consented.
Some doctors in the Netherlands expressed concern before the rule was adjusted that they could be held criminally liable for the deaths of children between 1 and 12 for whom they provided end-of-life care.
“It is of great importance that incurably ill children receive the best possible care and that unnecessary suffering is prevented,” Mr. de Jonge said in 2020.
To request an assisted death in the Netherlands, people have to suffer from a condition for which there is no cure or relief. Those suffering from psychological conditions are also eligible to seek an assisted death.
Medically assisted death is allowed in the Netherlands, and in many other countries in Europe and on other continents. Some countries permit it only for terminal illness; the Netherlands and a few others extend the option for people who have intolerable suffering from chronic and incurable conditions, including mental illness.
Assisted dying has been legal in Canada since 2016. Four countries in Latin America — Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador and Uruguay — allow it, too. It is also legal in most of Australia, and in New Zealand.
In Colombia, assisted death is allowed for children between the ages of 6 and 12, so long as the child understands the concept of death. Belgium also allows children to die with the help of a doctor.
