Heartbreaking reason a 29-year-old Dutch woman chose assisted suicide

Disclaimer: Some readers may find the story disturbing. Discretion is advised.

A tragic wish of death by assisted suicide of a youngDutch woman was finally fulfilled at the age of 29 last week.

The doctors terminated the life of 29-year-old Dutch woman Zoraya ter Beek last week after the court gave final approval to her request for euthanasia, which she had filed three years ago.

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In the Netherlands, euthanasia is legal if the patient is deemed tobe experiencing “unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement.”

The doctors diagnosed Ter Beek with autism when she was 21 and by the time she turned 22, the girl started wearing a “Do Not Resuscitate” tag around her neck,as reported by The Free Press.

According to the reports, the girl had been hoping to end her life since she was a child because shefaced bullying while she was growing up and she often felt as if she did not fit in.

“For me, autism is the major hiccup in my life,” said Ter Beek, while speaking to the Free Press. “That bothers me the most," she added.

Although the woman was physically healthy, she was struggling with mental illness like anxiety, depression and an unspecified personality disorder, reported The Free Press.

Also Read:India: Woman blamed for baby falling from 4th floor, dies by suicide in Coimbatore, says police

The girl used to dress like a goth to ward off bullies in school and appeared scarier. “The whole black look looked right, because that is how I felt on the inside,” Beek said.

The girl was living with her boyfriend Stein - who is an IT programmer and is 10 years older than her in age. Her parents did not approve of their age difference.

The girl had remained estranged for six years from her mother and three older sisters, while her father succumbed to cancer last year.

Ter Beek's boyfriend Stein was worried about her health and had asked her to get treatment. So, she went through various treatments to cure her mental illness.

This included going through 33 rounds of electroconvulsive therapy, in which the woman received electric currentjolts to the brain.

However, after her last treatment in August 2020, the woman was informed by her psychiatrist that "there’s nothing more we can do for you. It’s never going to get any better.”

“After we heard that, we all kind of knew what that meant,” said Ter Beek, as she became more determined to apply to the Netherlands’Euthanasia Expertise Center in December 2020.

“I was always very clear: if it doesn’t get better, I can’t do this. My whole friends and my support system, we really did it together,” she said, in her interview with The Free Press.

According toreports, Ter Beek saw herself as an ambassador for the Dutch euthanasia programme and said that there is a proper protocol in place for preventing abuse of the system.

“We’ve had this law for more than 20 years. There are really strict rules, and it’s really safe," she said to the outlet.

However, she did not support “suicide kits” which are widely available for those who were not permitted state-sanctioned euthanasia and was not in support of an update to the law which would allow assisted suicide without approval of the state or prior medical intervention.

Ter Beek's back-up plan

“I’m pro-death. But we need to be careful to protect people who’re in psychosis or depressed and not thinking straight,” said Ter Beek. “If you go on the suicide kit road, you don’t know if somebody, maybe with the right help, could have chosen to live," she added.

Watch:Gravitas: Mother of baby rescued from Chennai apartment dies by suicide

However, the woman had a backup plan in case her application was not approved. Ter Beek said that she had thought about using a suicide kit which she had obtained fromExit International, a group that advocates for the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia.

However, she did not apply her "escape plan" eventually. “Zoraya passed away today at 1:25 p.m. Or as she saw it herself: she went to sleep,” wrote one of her friendson X on May 22.

(With inputs from agencies)

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