“The 13 Deaths of Dr. Oosterhoff” caught my eye as I was taking a daily scroll through Instagram.

This ought to be good. I clicked on the post from the Atlantic and began swiping through the carousel.

“In October 2022, Dr. Menno Oosterhoff, a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry in the Netherlands, ended a patient’s life for the first time … She was 18 years old.”

Oh. Consider me hooked. I signed up for a free trial with the Atlantic, set a reminder to cancel on April 20 and got to reading.

Dutch psychiatrist Oosterhoff spent the final years of his four-decade spanning career campaigning for the legal right to euthanize minors suffering from severe psychiatric illness. Controversy ensues.

Under the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act, the Netherlands already permits those under the age of 18 to request euthanasia. Sixteen to 17-year-olds need parental “consultation,” and 12 to 15-year-olds need parental consent.

Legislation like this reflects a cultural emphasis on individualism. The Dutch believe people should live the lives they want to live and make the choices they want to make, free of consequence. They make it a point to bust taboos — they have a progressive tolerance policy, decriminalizing marijuana and legalizing prostitution.

With that being said, the majority of granted cases deal with physical illness. While psychiatric cases are rare, they are legally allowed.

Oosterhoff believes that the decision to end one’s life shouldn’t be contingent on age. Rather, each case is nuanced and should be judged based on the severity of the individual’s illness and suffering.

Originally, Oosterhoff says he had much internal debate about euthanizing his 18-year-old patient. Unsure that the decision was morally sound, he ultimately decided, “If this is not good, God should make a better user manual for our life.” I highly recommend you read the entire Atlantic article. Dr. Oosterhoff is quite the character.

After October 2022, Oosterhoff said his anxieties left him completely. He went on to euthanize 12 more patients, the youngest being 16 years old.

Sixteen? Up until this point, I had an open mind.

But 16? This isn’t a bad tattoo you can laser off when you’re 30. One 70-year-old man, using his own judgment and an imaginary dialogue with God, decides whether children get to live or die.

In his interview with the Atlantic, Oosterhoff championed euthanasia as a viable alternative to a patient ending their lives “on their own, impulsively or violently.”

Sue me for saying this, but I think suicide should be impulsive and violent. It shouldn’t be peaceful. Death shouldn’t be appealing. It should be painful, radical and, yes, taboo.

When you present euthanasia as a government-sanctioned, socially acceptable form of mental healthcare, last resort or not, it destigmatizes the act.

Death becomes a viable solution to mental illness. Millions of suffering teenagers begin to question if suicidal ideation is not just a symptom. Because it is — suicidal ideation is a symptom of depression, anxiety, PTSD and OCD. What happens when you make suicidal ideation the solution?

According to the National Library of Medicine, no clear evidence was shown higher rates of euthanasia actually lead to lower non-assisted suicide rates. Suicide rates in the Netherlands have stayed relatively the same for the past five years.

I grew up in close proximity to suicide. I’ve witnessed attempts, the havoc they wreak on families and the hardships endured by those struggling. I’ve also witnessed the change and healing that comes with time and age. If euthanasia had been an option, I can’t say for sure I would have been able to see that.

In America, euthanasia like this is completely illegal. No doctor has the power to directly end a patient’s life. If they did, they would be charged with homicide.

Through Death with Dignity, some states (13) allow physician-assisted suicide. But, under very strict regulations, the patient has to be terminally ill with less than six months to live. Also, the patient must administer the medication themselves. The doctor isn’t even allowed to inject them.

In the last week, news broke that Spain had authorized the active euthanasia of a 25-year-old woman named Noelia Castillo Ramos.

Ramos was diagnosed with OCD and borderline personality disorder — she was left a paraplegic after a failed suicide attempt and was a two-time victim of rape. After an 18-month legal battle with the European Court of Human Rights and the preventative legal efforts of her family, Ramos finally got the right to die.

So, it’s not just the Netherlands. While euthanasia probably won’t be legal in America for a while, there is clearly a demand. And listen — hearing Ramos’ story — it’s traumatizing. But she wasn’t 16.

As I came to the end of this article, fine-tuning, grammar checking, cutting and chopping — I (as usual) found myself incredibly stressed, convinced I would never get it in on time. Despite weeks of consistency and meeting deadlines, this is pretty typical for me. I think it’s the anxiety.

I looked up at my roommate — “I just want to die. I hate this. I hate this.”

She looked back at me, “You’ve been saying that a lot lately … I think you should take a break from writing that article.”

I went to respond, but stopped. She was right. The two-day hyperbolic chamber of suicide I had locked myself in had begun to rub off on me. I had become so negative.

I can’t imagine what it feels like in the Netherlands.

I slammed my computer shut. I need a vacation.

Death is free. We all have the unspoken right to die. The frameworks that exist to stop us — family, therapy, medication — can all fail. But the answer isn’t euthanasia. You work on improving the system in place. You don’t give up.

Sign the petitions below to:

Remove mental illness as an eligible condition for assisted death and invest in youth mental healthcare instead: https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7136&

Say no to MAiD, excluding mental illness from eligibility for euthanasia: https://nomaidformentalillness.ca/

Claire Thatcher is a freshman at UT this year studying journalism and media. She can be reached at [email protected].

Columns and letters of The Daily Beacon are the views of the individual and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Beacon or the Beacon’s editorial staff.