The change in the reporting of the cause of death of a Dutch teenager (which the media saw as preventable) highlighted how support-ers of assisted dying are keen to ensure that euthanasia’s growing acceptance in society continues. First reported as being ‘eutha-nasia’, days later Noa Pothoven’s cause of death was altered to one of ‘non-intervention’.
Many were horrified at the lack of sup-port available for a girl suffering with a mental illness, who had been waiting over a year for treatment for an eating disorder. Others were saddened that someone so young would entertain the idea of eutha-nasia. ‘It is difficult to imagine a teenager with no physical ailments essentially being allowed to starve herself’, said the BBC. Noa’s devastated parents believe the Dutch authorities failed them.
Noa was not given a cocktail of drugs, as 81 other, presumably terminally ill, teen-agers in Holland were in 2018. She died as a result of self-induced starvation. This ‘palliative sedation’ can be administered in Holland when a patient’s life expectancy is no more than two weeks.
However Noa’s life expectancy should have been as long as any other 17-year-old. Hers became two weeks because she vol-untarily went on hunger strike because she couldn’t get the mental support she needed.
Noa was sexually assaulted and raped as a child. She suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. ‘My house has been broken into, my body, that can never be undone. Out of fear and shame, I relive the fear, that pain every day. Always scared, always on my guard. And to this day my body still feels dirty.’ Noa needed help, not ‘non-intervention’ when she had no hope.
