Former Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt and his wife Eugenie, both 93, have died together by euthanasia as the number of couples in the Netherlands choosing to end their lives this way is on the rise, record this Guardian.

Double euthanasia, although still rare, was seen for the first time in a review of all cases in 2020, when 26 people died assisted by doctors at the same time as their partners. The numbers rise to 32 next year and 58 in 2022.

Dries Van Agt was Prime Minister from 1977 to 1982 and the first leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal party, and although he was a Catholic, he chose to die by euthanasia on February 5, together with his wife Eugenia, whom he had married in 1958.

The news of their deaths was announced by the Rights Forum, a pro-Palestinian group he founded in 2009 when his politics shifted to the left.

The group’s director, Gerard Jonkman, told NOS that both were very ill but “couldn’t go without each other”. Van Agt never fully recovered from a brain hemorrhage in 2019.

Elke Swart, spokeswoman for the Expertisecentrum Euthanasie, which fulfills the euthanasia wishes of around 1,000 people a year in the Netherlands, said couples’ interest in this form of assisted death is growing, but each case is investigated individually on a strict individual basis. requirements, so that both members of the couple must meet the conditions necessary for euthanasia.

“Interest in it is growing, but it’s still rare,” she said. “It is pure coincidence that two people are suffering excruciatingly at the same time with no prospect of relief…and both want euthanasia.”

Euthanasia and assisted suicide have been legal in the Netherlands since 2002, but there are six conditions that must be met, including “unbearable” suffering and no prospect of relief.

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