The practice is considered controversial as unlike with other types of euthanasia, a patient euthanized for mental illness alone is usually not terminally ill, and may have their decisional capacity impeded by their condition.[7][8][9] It is also considered more difficult with psychological conditions to determine an objective prognosis, or whether a disorder is irremediable.[10][11]
By country
Belgium
In Belgium, euthanasia for mental illness is legal if the patient is mentally competent to make the decision; the patient requests euthanasia on two separate occasions in writing; the patient is suffering from an incurable disease or mental illness, and all treatment options have been exhausted; and the patient is experiencing "unbearable suffering" from the illness, either physically or psychologically.[12] Three doctors must agree to grant euthanasia in psychiatric cases.[13][14] Euthanasia for mental suffering is not available for children.[15]
As of 2017, approximately 40 patients per year received euthanasia due to mental illness, out of approximately 2,000 total yearly euthanasia deaths.[15]
In 2020, a Belgium court acquitted three doctors who had euthanized Tine Nys, a physically healthy 38-year-old woman with autism, of manslaughter charges.[16] Nys' sister Sophie Nys had filed a lawsuit alleging that the doctors did not properly attempt to treat her condition, and that Nys had not been incurably ill as the law required.[16]
Netherlands
Euthanasia for mental illness has been legal since 2002 in the Netherlands provided the patient has "unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement" and has requested to die in a way that is "voluntary, well considered and with full conviction", among other criteria.[17][18] In 2020, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled that physicians could euthanize patients with dementia if they had expressed a wish to die before the onset of their condition.[19]
The 2016 euthanasia of Eelco de Gooijer, a 38-year-old man from Tilburg who had depression and autism, was one of the first high-profile euthanasia cases involving a young person with a neurodevelopmental condition and mental illness.[18][20]
In 2023, 138 people in the Netherlands received euthanasia due to psychiatric conditions, a 20% increase from 2022.[21] The first minor euthanized for a psychiatric condition (who was between 16 and 18-years-old) was in 2023.[21]
^Olié, Emilie; Courtet, Philippe (2016-08-09). "The Controversial Issue of Euthanasia in Patients With Psychiatric Illness". JAMA. 316 (6). American Medical Association (AMA): 656–657. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.9883. ISSN0098-7484. PMID27532920.