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Active termination of life possible for children aged 1 – 12 years

The cabinet has decided that a regulation will be introduced for the termination of life of sick children aged 1 to 12 who suffer serious and hopeless suffering.


For children aged 1 - 12 years who are suffering seriously and with no prospect of improvement, who are expected to die in the foreseeable future and for whom palliative care is not sufficient, the current legislation and regulations do not offer options for active termination of life.

Today, Friday 14 April 2023, Minister Ernst Kuipers sent this letter to the House of Representatives to make this possible for this group. Termination of life in children aged 1 - 12 will be added to the Late Termination of Pregnancy and Termination of Newborns Scheme.

A special moment for the group of children aged 1 - 12 and their families. The regulation describes the due care criteria and further conditions that must be met in order to perform active termination of life. A theme to which we, as Knowledge Center for Pediatric Palliative Care, have been committed for several years, together with the Dutch Pediatric Association, under the inspiring leadership of Eduard Verhagen. As early as 2015, we advocated a study into the bottlenecks in end-of-life care for children aged 1-12. A study that was completed in 2019.

We have always been emphatically involved in the process and developments surrounding active termination of life in this group of children. We also contributed to the creation of the scheme as it is now. A scheme that meets the need of both parents and (paediatricians) doctors to spare these children from hopeless and unbearable suffering for longer when pediatric palliative care falls short.

On behalf of the Knowledge Center for Palliative Care for Children, I would therefore like to express our appreciation for the efforts of Minister Kuipers to arrive at this regulation. Assuming that the regulation is adopted by the House of Representatives, we will work with the NVK to ensure proper and careful application. This includes further elaboration of the scheme and training. We will share new developments.

MA (Meggi) Schuiling-Otten
Director Knowledge Center Pediatric Palliative Care

Media attention

On Thursday, April 13, 2023 , EenVandaag paid attention to this arrangement in their radio and TV broadcast. In the report, a family is portrayed and researcher Marije Brouwer and Meggi Schuiling-Otten provide their explanation.

Listen to the radio fragment from minute 07:20 here .

Watch the broadcast of EenVandaag here .

If you have any questions regarding the scheme or the broadcast, please contact Meggi Schuiling-Otten, via m.schuiling@kinderpalliatief.nl or 06 33 34 01 39.


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