17 year old girl legally euthanised [trigger warning] ***MNHQ note that the details of this story are disputed***

[Notabedofroses]

I am quite shocked reading that a depressed young girl called Noa Pothoven of just seventeen has just been legally euthanised by doctors in the Netherlands.

She was not terminally ill, nor was she brain dead or in a coma for twenty five year.

She was in fact depressed and anorexic.

She was raped as a child, and became depressed and had PTSD.

I can not help but feel she has been massively failed in every single way, how can it be that the doctors gave up on her? She was seventeen, and could have eventually found her way out of the darkness that is teen depression with the right help and support.

What message does it give to other teens? That the easiest way out is to die?

Many many of us are survivors of tragedies, many of us have had serious eating disorders, depression and suicidal thoughts/attempts. Those very same people have gone on to have wonderful, successful and fulfilling lives, but now she will never ever get the chance to turn this around for herself.

I can not stress how much I disagree with euthanising a child of seventeen for depression and anorexia.

Thoughts anyone?

Making an active decision to refuse enteral feeding and food/drink does not mean that you deserve to die in pain/discomfort. You don't exclude yourself from palliative services because your death is a choice (although with someone who has such a sad, sad, background, I think the life-choices had been stolen from her years ago, tbh.)

A poster asked what happens in the UK if someone refuses EN via a tube. The answer is that if someone actively refuses an NG, or pulls it out deliberately once in, it would be assault to replace it without their consent, unless it is court ordered, they are sectioned (on a proper section, not just a section 5), or they have a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS) authorisation. Basically, if they have capacity, they are free to refuse life-sustaining feeding, even if it would lead to their death.

Just coming back to say I am sorry I took the newspaper report I read at face value. Of course not force-feeding is a different thing.

It's really shocking how this has been completely misinterpreted by the British press

In an era of populism people like simple black-and-white answers to complex problems. They simply would not be interested in the true ethical, legal, emotional and practical complexities of cases like this, as some of the posts here have shown.

Aurelia Brouwers visits the facility where she will be cremated in nine days' time

This is the chilling caption from a story on the BBC website about another Dutch girl called Aurelia who was euthanized, at the age of 29, because she had depression. No history of abuse.

There is also a photo of her aged about 10 as a child in her garden. Heartbreaking. She's now dead.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/stories-45117163

pierre This thread, and the debate and discussion around euthanasia and young women has been shut down by a minority of posts that seem to be trying very hard to close down any conversation.

However, I feel differently.

Euthanasia in the hands of just two doctors is very dangerous.

Whether Noa's feeding tubes were removed, or she was 'helped' along as many are reporting, Noa and Aurelia are examples of how we are failing young women across the western world, and how it is especially dangerous in countries with state aided euthanasia.

Agreed @Notabed . The same thing happened on the other thread. A small but strident minority who wilfully ignore the dangers if euthanasia being taken too far. Which it clearly has, in the Netherlands.

I think OP calling this euthanasia is very misleading. Had the woman in question been a few days older ie 18 would it be acceptable?

A person should have the choice over whether or not to end their own life. The suggestion that we enforce suffering on people is very cruel.

@Notabedofroses

Why are we failing women is particular when men die more frequently from suicide?

This thread, and the debate and discussion around euthanasia and young women has been shut down by a minority of posts that seem to be trying very hard to close down any conversation.

I'm still seeing it!

So sad

Awful and tragic for everyone involved 😔

home we are not talking about suicide, you can start a separate thread if you wish to discuss that.

walking The fact is she wasn't eighteen plus, she was seventeen and very vulnerable.