(LifeSiteNews) — A Dutch news site reported that a petition seeking to fully decriminalize assisted suicide in the Netherlands has received the necessary signatures to ensure a debate will occur on the subject in the country’s Parliament.
DutchNews.NL says the petition has surpassed more than 75,000 signatures. The initiative is endorsed by Stichting Levenseinderegie, also known as the End-of-Life Self-Direction Foundation. The group was established by retired psychologist turned euthanasia activist Wim van Dijk
The petition seeks to eliminate the last remaining restrictions the country has placed on assisted suicide. The Netherlands legalized euthanasia in 2002 and limits it to persons under certain situations and with approval from medical doctors. The progressive political party D66 will reportedly introduce the measure during next year’s session with the aim of loosening restrictions.
DutchNews reported that in 2025 roughly 10,000 persons died from euthanasia in the country. According to Dr. David Lussier, a geriatrician at the Montreal University Institute of Geriatrics, Quebec has the highest number of requests for assisted suicide worldwide. But since 2022, Quebec is trailed only by the Netherlands and Belgium.
Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition maintains that the Netherlands does not accurately report its euthanasia death numbers. He has said that every five years the Netherlands government commissions a study to determine the number of deaths by medical and end-of-life decisions. He found that the Netherlands’ 2021 study said there were 9,799 assisted deaths representing 9,038 euthanasia deaths, 245 assisted suicide deaths, and 517 ending of life without explicit request, meaning that 517 persons died by the practice without asking for it.
Earlier this year, Fox News reporter Asra Nomani published an investigative report detailing the predatory-like behavior of what she calls “Assisted Suicide Inc.”
Nomani’s research confirmed the growth of assisted suicide across the world via a “sprawling network changing laws worldwide” to even entice “mature minors” to kill themselves.
“In 2023, about 15,000 Canadians died through ‘(Medical Assistance in Dying),’ about one in every 20 deaths nationwide, a 16% increase from 2022, making assisted suicide the fifth leading cause of death,” she found.
She also noted that the Netherlands “offers a preview of what comes next. Legal since 2002, Dutch euthanasia laws permit doctors to end lives of children as young as 1, including newborns ‘suffering unbearably with no prospects of improvement.’ By 2024, euthanasia accounted for 9,958 deaths in 2024, or 5.8% of the country’s deaths.”
Multiple U.S. states have expanded euthanasia services as well in recent years. In October, the Illinois Senate approved a bill that would legalize physician-assisted suicide. If approved by pro-abortion Governor JB Pritzker, the bill would make Illinois the 11th state in the U.S. to allow the unethical practice. Legalization bills are also currently being considered in Montana and New York. A 2024 Oregon assisted suicide report indicated there were 376 reported assisted suicide deaths that year.
In its weekly Desde la fe, the Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico City, Mexico rebuked the argument that assisted suicide is “death with dignity” by static that “offering euthanasia is inhumane and symbolic of a state that is failing in its duty.”
The Catholic Church teaches that suicide or the intentional ending of one’s own life is gravely evil, as man is not the author of his own life. “Intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 2324) affirms.
Support is available for those who are struggling with suicidal thoughts or considering ending their lives. The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988.
