A child died at the end of 2025.
Incurably ill. Unbearable suffering. No prospect of improvement.
And for the first time in Dutch history… a doctor was legally allowed to end their life.
The child was under 12.
Health Minister Sophie Hermans quietly broke the news to parliament this week.
No name. No age. No illness. No location.
Just a letter. And a country forced to confront what its own law now allows.
The Dutch legalized euthanasia back in 2002 — the first country in the world to do it.
But for two decades, one age group sat in a painful grey zone:
Children between 1 and 12.
Newborns? Allowed in rare cases.
Teens 12 and up? Allowed with parental consent.
But a 6-year-old dying in agony from an incurable disease?
Legally untouchable.
That changed in 2024.
The government estimated it would apply to just 5 to 10 children a year.
This is case number one.
Before a child under 12 can be euthanized, doctors must clear a wall of checks:
If the doctor fell short of "due care" — charges can follow.
That review is happening right now.
Only a tiny handful of countries permit euthanasia for young children.
🇧🇪 Belgium — since 2014.
🇳🇱 The Netherlands — now fully, since 2024.
That's basically it.
And the Dutch government is careful to draw a hard line:
Euthanasia is only for medical suffering with no way out — cancer, severe neurological disease, psychiatric conditions in extreme cases.
It is not allowed for people who simply feel "finished with life."
For the parents, this was almost certainly the hardest decision of their lives.
For the doctor, a career-defining act of conscience.
For the country, a moral test it spent 20 years preparing for.
Some will call this compassion at its purest.
Others will call it a line that should never have been crossed.
Both sides will argue for years.
But somewhere in the Netherlands, a child who was suffering is no longer suffering.
And a law written for 5 to 10 children a year just met its first one.
That's all for now!
