Doctors Agree to Euthanize Healthy 24-Year-Old Who has Contemplated Suicide since Childhood

A healthy 24-year-old woman plans to undergo physician-assisted suicide this summer for psychological reasons. The woman, known only as Laura, has reportedly had suicidal thoughts since childhood. 

She is quoted as saying, “Like, that’s not for me.” 

Life News reports Belgian laws only require a doctor’s consent to be euthanized, even when otherwise healthy. In Laura’s case, her psychiatrist determined that her depression was “treatable” by death, after her symptoms were not relieved through other methods of treatment. 

Laura has been approved to be euthanized through a lethal injection. 

Belgium authorizes 50 to 60 euthanasia procedures for psychiatric patients each year. 

Currently, physician-assisted suicide is only legal in the U.S. in Oregon, Washington and Vermont, though others have expressed interest in passing their own right-to-die laws. The procedure is only an option for terminally ill patients. 

Publication date: June 23, 2015