A child under 12 has been euthanized in the Netherlands for the first time
Somewhere in the Netherlands, a child under the age of 12 is dead, not from disease, but by the deliberate act of a physician, with the full blessing of the law. Dutch Health Minister Sophie Hermans confirmed the death in a letter to parliament, acknowledging that the child was euthanized at the end of 2025. It is the first such death since the Netherlands expanded its euthanasia rules in 2024 to cover children between the ages of 1 and 12.
No details about the child's age or illness were released. What we know is enough: a country that once promised euthanasia would be a rare exception for adults in unbearable suffering at the end of life has now extended the lethal needle to its youngest citizens, children who cannot possibly weigh a decision of that magnitude for themselves.
And this death will not be the last. When the Dutch government expanded the law, officials estimated there would be five to 10 child euthanasia cases every year. That is the plan, stated in advance: a routine, annual toll of children killed by their own doctors.
Step back and look at where the Netherlands has arrived. Euthanasia now accounts for roughly 6 percent of all deaths in the country, with more than 10,000 reported in a single year. What began decades ago as a narrow carve-out has become an ordinary feature of Dutch medicine, and the categories of the eligible keep widening: the elderly, the mentally ill, and now children barely old enough for school.
This is the trajectory of the culture of death, and it is always the same. The exception becomes the rule. The rule becomes the expectation. And the expectation falls hardest on the weakest, the ones whose lives the world has quietly decided are not worth the trouble.
Final Thoughts
The answer to a suffering child is not a lethal injection. It is the best palliative care medicine can offer, and the unshakable presence of a society that says: your life is precious, and we will not abandon you. Every child, in every condition, deserves nothing less. Let the Netherlands stand as a warning to America, not a model.
Related resources: Euthanasia and end-of-life teaching at PriestsForLife.org
