In her autobiography, Ms. Pothoven wrote that at the age of 11 she was sexually assaulted at a school party. The next year, she was assaulted again at a classmate’s party. At 14, she was raped by two men.
She did not tell anyone for a long time, she wrote, but the experience took a destructive toll. She recounted in her book, “Winning or Learning,” which was released in November, that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anorexia.
“To this day, my body still feels dirty,” the teenager wrote. “My house has been broken into, my body, that can never be undone.”
In an Instagram post last week that was subsequently deleted, Ms. Pothoven announced that she had stopped eating and drinking, a local newspaper reported on Monday.
“After years of fighting and fighting, it is finished,” she was quoted as saying. “After many conversations and assessments, it was decided that I will be released because my suffering is unbearable.”
Mr. Pleiter, the director of the end-of-life clinic in The Hague, said that gaining approval for euthanasia was a complex process. After the clinic receives a request, he said, it is reviewed, with doctors and nurses making home visits and conducting multiple interviews.
Every person seeking euthanasia must meet criteria set by Dutch law, which include ensuring that the request is voluntary, that the person is in unbearable suffering with a poor prognosis that shows no improvement, and that he or she is mentally able to understand the process and its consequences.
Source : Nytimes
