Update: Tyler O’Neil over at PJ Media reports that this story is incorrect and the error can likely be traced to the wire service Central European News.
Important update: @Tyler2ONeil reports that Noa Pothoven did NOT die from euthanasia (which she sought but which was denied) but died from starvation, against the wishes of the state or her parents. More here: https://t.co/ZfLNswR5VD
— Jeff Walton (@jeffreyhwalton) June 6, 2019
* * *
Maybe it’s what she wanted — she petitioned the courts, after all — but we can’t help feeling something else could have been done to help a 17-year-old rape survivor than to put her to death. Her body, her choice, we guess?
In the Netherlands, a 17-year-old girl suffering from PTSD due to a rape has been granted a request for physician-assisted suicide. She died in the last day or so.
A child. With no terminal ailment. Just "hopeless" mental illness.https://t.co/tksDUkiJkL— Charles Lane (@ChuckLane1) June 4, 2019
Child's mother in Dutch press: "There are also huge waiting lists there. We actually want one place for her, where she can stay and where all her physical and mental problems are addressed. You can't find it in the Netherlands. " Untreatable illness?
— Charles Lane (@ChuckLane1) June 4, 2019
But we were told medical care in Europe was free and superior to America’s in every way.
From Dutch press:
Noa had to wait half a year for a treatment place in an eating disorder clinic in Zutphen, which meant she eventually had to undergo tube feeding for a year at Rijnstate Hospital.
If accurate, we have a case of systemic failure being "resolved" by mercy-killing— Charles Lane (@ChuckLane1) June 4, 2019
The facts of the case are that her treating physicians told her that the full effects of their treatment could not be evaluated until she was 21 but she said she could not bear to keep going until then, refused further treatment and sought assisted suicide from another clinic
— Charles Lane (@ChuckLane1) June 4, 2019
What a nightmare.
That's just wrong.
— Mark Teister (@MTeister) June 4, 2019
Horrific.
— Bonnie? (@BonnieB5535) June 4, 2019
Terrible. Imagine if she had stuck through treatment and, one day, looked back on this dark place and felt grateful that she chose to live.
— Swarna Sinha (@Swarna_Sinha) June 4, 2019
Heartbreaking. God rest her soul.
— lennysherman (@GlenLenSherman) June 4, 2019
I am both shocked and truly saddened.
— chris (@colliewobblie) June 4, 2019
Is it ethical/legal to euthanize <18 year old with diagnosed psychiatric illness in Netherlands ?
— Qais قيس (@Qais_Alrashidi) June 4, 2019
Yes
— Charles Lane (@ChuckLane1) June 4, 2019
Quoted from article.
In Holland, children as young as 12 can be granted euthanasia if they desire, but only after a doctor concludes that the patient's suffering is unbearable with no clear end in sight.— SouthofATL (@SofATL) June 4, 2019
Wow.
This is absolutely horrifying and insane.
— TJ Epting (@te6192) June 4, 2019
Insane that this is legal in the Netherlands. Definitely not what assisted suicide is for
— The Three Eyed Raven (@robbie_hastie) June 4, 2019
This is the most awful thing I've read in a while
— pool man (@ThePoolmanLV) June 4, 2019
How about saying something judgmental about the rapist?
— EmmaDaly (@EmmaDaly) June 4, 2019
Your point? I don't judge her. My judgment is on the system that "honors" the request for death from a child suffering the after effects of a crime on the grounds that her condition is supposedly hopeless and untreatable. My judgment is on the dr. that participated.
— Charles Lane (@ChuckLane1) June 4, 2019
This is where the path of devaluing human life goes. Unwanted pregnancy, euthanasia for elderly, now for the depressed. A society will not exist when it stops valuing life
— Thayne Cullimore (@thcullimore) June 4, 2019
I used to be more atheistic/anti-theistic back in the day, but this is a clear example of what happens when you let society go too secular. Religion, particularly Christianity, instills values in a community. Without it you end up with a society that does this instead of helping.
— MetalGearFan (@metalgearfan13) June 4, 2019
She was betrayed twice by her country.
— TL (@tlong513) June 4, 2019
A child was raped and wanted to kill herself so we helped her do it.
That’s one of the saddest things you’ll ever read.
— JoJo (@coopersopinion) June 4, 2019
Totally failed this sweet innocent. Rot in hell.
— Liz Gordon Martin (@LIzGordonMartin) June 4, 2019
My God. Horrifying. https://t.co/vmgqraiuUT
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 4, 2019
My brain can’t process the horror of this. ?
— J. Reese Bradley (@AngelaKeenPeach) June 4, 2019
We are truly living a dystopian novel.
— Heather Olsson (@heather_olsson) June 4, 2019
A someone who was in her shoes as an 8-10 year old, I still cannot even wrap my head around this. It is the most tragic & heart wrenching thing I have ever heard of. HOW could her mother have ok'd it! There were other options! I'm not saying it's easy, but there is always hope.
— Roxanne Voorhees (@RoxanneMarie63) June 4, 2019
The whole world seems pretty horrifying right now
— maryellis ???? (@maryell02682220) June 4, 2019
Related:
Classy: Twitter blue-check calls Pete Davidson an ‘attention seeking whore’ after posting ‘suicide note’ https://t.co/XYemwO8RqJ
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 15, 2018
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