Septuagenarian couple opt for death by lethal injection in Netherlands

A couple from the Netherlands, Jan Faber and Els van Leeningen have died side by side via euthanasia, otherwise known as assisted death.

The couple, 70 and 71, were married for almost five decades before they ended their lives by lethal injection. In the moments before their deaths, the pair were surrounded by friends and family, including their son, who had found his parents’ decision to end their lives hard to take.

Jan, who worked as a cargo boat operator, had been suffering from severe back pain for over 20 years, while his wife was diagnosed with dementia in 2022, which became so debilitating that she struggled to form sentences.

The couple enjoyed a lifelong partnership, first meeting in kindergarten. Jan went on to play hockey for the Netherlands’ national youth team before training as a sports coach, while Els became a primary school teacher. They shared a passion for the sea and spent much of their lives living on boats.

This shared interest was turned into a career, with the pair buying a cargo boat and setting up a goods transportation company. After more than a decade of heavy lifting and hands-on work, Jans’ back pain became serious, and the couple moved back on land into a caravan. Surgery in 2003 did little to alleviate his pain and he was forced to stop working.

While Els was still working as a teacher, Jans’ physical limitations and the lower quality of life encouraged the couple to start thinking about assisted death, and they joined NVVE – Netherlands’ ‘right to die’ organisation. Els retired in 2018 and was beginning to show early signs of dementia, a disease her father had suffered from and died from.

The couple’s General Practitioner, like many doctors in the Netherlands, was uncomfortable with accepting their case for euthanasia due to Els’ dementia which can create uncertainty around a patient’s capacity to give consent. The couple turned to the Centre of Expertise on Euthanasia, which gives advice on assisted dying and has a mobile clinic which carries out procedures in patients’ homes.

On the day they were due to die, Els and Jan had two final hours together with their loved ones. After that, everything happened quickly within minutes with the medics following their procedures. The couple were administered lethal injections simultaneously by two doctors and died together on June 3.

Assisted deaths have been on the increase in recent times in the Netherlands. In 2023, 9,068 people died by euthanasia and 8,720 in 2022. Of the 8,720 people, 29 were couples. In 2021, 16 couples died this way. In 2018, there were nine.

The Netherlands and Belgium were the first European countries to legalise euthanasia. The procedure is strictly regulated in the Netherlands. A doctor and an independent expert have to judge that a patient is enduring unbearable suffering with no hope of improvement.

It also requires that a decision to die is carefully considered, of a patient’s own free will, and that there is no other realistic option. In the case of a couple choosing euthanasia, these conditions have to be met for both patients and assessed by two different doctors.