(The Free Press) – ‘I don’t want my little girl to die,’ Cissy Dekker said about her 19-year-old daughter, Iris. ‘But out of love, I also don’t want this life for her.’

The symptoms began early in Iris’s adolescence. In 2019, at the age of 13, she began complaining of constant pain in her back, head, and stomach. At first, she pushed through it at school, during shifts at a bakery, while babysitting, and playing tennis, relying on a combination of painkillers and antidepressants, counseling at school, and cognitive behavioral therapy.

Then the pandemic hit. As lockdowns stretched on, Iris retreated—into her room, away from friends, away from everything. At 15, she tried to kill herself twice. The first time, she attempted to hang herself, but the hook in the ceiling broke. The second time, she slit her wrists. Both times, Omar, a former psychiatric nurse who now teaches nursing, came home to find her.

After the second attempt, Iris’s psychologist raised the possibility that there was a more humane way to die under Dutch law: euthanasia, which is allowed in cases of “unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement.” (Read More)