The Netherlands has recorded its first death of a child under the age of 12 since expanding its euthanasia regulations in 2024, renewing ethical concerns among Catholic and pro-life advocates about the growing reach of assisted-dying laws. Source: EWTN News.
According to the Dutch Governmentʼs 2025 annual report on late-term pregnancy termination and life-ending procedures, authorities received a report in late 2025 involving a child between the ages of 1 and 12.
The case is the first known report since the Netherlands broadened its regulations to permit euthanasia for children in that age group under limited circumstances.
Dutch Health Minister Sophie Hermans confirmed in a June 22 letter to the Dutch House of Representatives, “At the end of 2025, the committee received its first report of life termination of a child between the ages of 1 and 12 years.”
Few details about the childʼs age, illness, or circumstances have been released.
The Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia for adults in 2002. Before the 2024 expansion, euthanasia was already permitted for infants under one year old in exceptional circumstances and for minors aged 12 and older, subject to parental consent requirements.
Dutch officials said the regulations were designed to address a small number of cases involving terminally ill children experiencing what authorities describe as “hopeless and unbearable suffering.”
The 2025 report recorded three late-term pregnancy terminations, no reported life-ending procedures involving newborns, and one reported life-ending procedure involving a child between the ages of 1 and 12.
The reported case of the child under 12 has drawn criticism from Catholic and pro-life advocates, who argue that societyʼs response to suffering should be compassionate care and effective pain management rather than intentionally ending a human life.
“This is clearly a grave ethical violation,” Joseph Meaney, senior fellow and director of international coordination at the National Catholic Bioethics Centre, said.
“The Church teaches that euthanasia and assisted suicide are intrinsically evil and so can never be morally justified actions. The case of euthanising children is graver still since a child cannot give informed consent.”
Mr Meaney also warned that the Netherlands has often served as a bellwether for euthanasia policy worldwide.
“Expanding the limits of what is allowed by the law in terms of medicalised killing usually happens first in the Netherlands and then spreads to other countries,” he said.
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Netherlands records first euthanasia death of child under 12 after law expansion (EWTN News)
