A physically healthy 28-year-old woman who suffers from depression and has autism and a borderline personality disorder will end her life with euthanasia, she has said.
Zoraya ter Beek, who lives in a small village in the Netherlands and will be ‘freed’ early next month, she has claimed. She will be euthanized on the sofa in her home with her boyfriend by her side.
Ter Beek decided she wanted to die after a psychiatrist told her ‘there’s nothing more we can do for you’ and that ‘it’s never gonna get any better’, The Free Press reported.
It is understood that a doctor will give her a sedative before administering a drug that will stop her heart.
Euthanasia has been legal in The Netherlands since 2002 for those experiencing unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement.
After ter Beek’s death, a euthanasia review committee will evaluate her case to ensure the doctor adhered to all ‘due care criteria’ and if so, the Dutch government will declare her life was lawfully ended.
Now, after doctors have reportedly said they cannot do anything else to help improve her mental health, she has decided she is tired of living.
The 28-year-old told the newspaper she has always been ‘very clear that if it doesn’t get better, I can’t do this anymore’.
She has decided against having a funeral and will be cremated. Her 40-year-old boyfriend, with whom she is in love, will scatter her ashes in ‘a nice spot in the woods’ that they have chosen together.
‘I don’t see it as my soul leaving, but more as myself being freed from life,’ she said of her expected death, admitting: ‘I’m a little afraid of dying, because it’s the ultimate unknown.
‘We don’t really know what’s next – or is there nothing? That’s the scary part.’
Ter Beek has carefully planned her ‘liberation’, telling the newspaper that she ‘will be going on the couch in the living room’ and there there will be ‘no music’ playing.
She explained that during a euthanasia the ‘doctor really takes her time’ and will first try to ‘settle the nerves and create a soft atmosphere’.
The doctor will then ask if she is ready, according to ter Beek, and she ‘I will take my place on the couch’.
The doctor will ask ‘once again’ if ter Beek wants to go through with her euthanasia, before starting the procedure and wishing her a ‘good journey’.
Ter Beek added: ‘Or, in my case, a nice nap, because I hate it if people say, “Safe journey”. I’m not going anywhere.’
The Netherlands is one of only three countries in the EU where the practice of assisted dying is legal, with rights groups arguing it gives people battling terminal illness or crippling disease the right to end their suffering humanely.
Data revealed that 8,720 people in the Netherlands ended their lives via euthanasia in 2022 – an increase of 14 per cent on the year before.
The figure represents 5.1 per cent of all deaths in the country – but the actual number could be much higher given that research suggests around 20 per cent of euthanasia deaths are not reported, according to Dutch media.
Peoplesmind