Former Dutch PM and wife die together in double euthanasia
A FORMER Dutch prime minister and his wife have died hand-in-hand in a rare “double euthanasia”.
Dries van Agt and his wife Eugenie were both aged 93. They were buried together on Thursday.
“He died hand in hand with his beloved wife Eugenie van Agt-krekelberg, the support and anchor with whom he was together for more than 70 years and whom he always continued to refer to as ‘my girl’,” a human rights charity he founded said on Friday. The couple had met as students at Nijmegen.
The director of the charity described him as “idiosyncratic” and said that Van Agt and his wife were very ill, but “couldn’t live without each other”.
A Dutchman of Catholic stock, Dries van Agt served as prime minister between 1977 and 1982. He was popular for his humour and for joining in with the Tour de France. He was once branded a “Jesuit” and “mystic” by political rivals.
The former Christian Democrat adopted increasingly Left-wing views later in life, opposing his party’s electoral agreement with Gert Wilders’ PVV in 2010. Van Agt was especially vocal on the Israel-palestine conflict, writing books on the topic and branding Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu “a war criminal” in 2016.
“Double euthanasia” is rare but has been on the rise in the Low Countries, which have some of the most liberal global euthanasia laws. There were 26 cases in 2020 and 58 in 2022, out of a total of 9,000 cases of euthanasia.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide have been legal in the Netherlands since 2002 for specific conditions.
Jozef van der Heijden, a former MP from van Agt’s party, and his wife Gonnie died by double euthanasia in 2016.
Constance de Vries of the Euthanasia Expertise Center told broadsheet De Volkskraant “many people dread the prospect of having to continue on their own, especially when they are 80 and no longer so flexible”.