#EU #Netherlands – A Dutch court ordered prosecutors last month to identify the doctors who questioned the euthanasia of a 17-year-old girl, reopening a fight over one of the country’s most disputed assisted suicides. The group of doctors had questioned the clinicians and parents for allowing the euthanasia of a 17-year old, warning of precedents that could normalize euthanasia of young people with mental health issues.
Milou Verhoof of Bavel died on October 2nd, 2023, after psychiatrist Menno Oosterhoff gave her a lethal injection in her childhood bedroom. Her parents were present. Review committees later found that the doctor had met the legal standard of care. Her mother wrote that Milou was, as far as the family knew, the first 17-year-old in the Netherlands to be euthanized solely for psychiatric suffering.
Reporting by DutchNews and an account by her mother in Trouw described years of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, self-harm, and suicide attempts. The family said the illness followed sexual abuse at 13 and a second assault by another patient in a secure facility. An earlier shock was a brother’s near-fatal illness when she was 11. Before she died, she had her nails done and chose an evening gown and heels for the coffin, according to a later profile in The Atlantic.
In 2024, 14 doctors, mostly psychiatrists, sent the public prosecution service a letter supporting the idea of a preliminary inquiry into the role of parents and clinicians. They had not treated Milou. They warned that public promotion of euthanasia for young people with mental illness could lead to unnecessary deaths. Prosecutors did not open a criminal case. The doctors’ federation, the KNMG, called the letter indecent and unacceptable. The parents said they were threatened online and at home after the letter became public.
On September 3, 2026, a court in The Hague ruled that prosecutors had to hand the parents the full letter, including names that had been redacted. Six signatories were already known. The parents said they needed the rest to bring disciplinary complaints. Judges said confidential contact with prosecutors should normally be protected, but that the parents had a compelling interest. The names were released. On September 29, the prosecution service appealed, arguing that citizens must be able to raise concerns with police and prosecutors without fear that their names will be disclosed.
One signatory, psychiatrist Jim van Os, said on television in September that he had apologized to the family. Milou’s mother told BN De Stem that he called the episode regrettable for everyone but did not withdraw the substance of the letter.
The case sat inside a wider rise in psychiatric euthanasia. Regional review committees recorded 219 such deaths in 2024, about 2.2 percent of 9,958 euthanasia deaths that year, up from 138 in 2023. Thirty of the psychiatric cases involved people ages 18 to 30, and one involved someone ages 16 to 18. In April 2026, six professors of child and adolescent psychiatry urged colleagues to treat euthanasia for severe mental illness as usually inappropriate until about age 25, citing unfinished brain development. The Dutch psychiatric association was revising its guideline. The statute itself did not change: euthanasia remained legal from age 12, with parental consent required only under 16.
A 2025 public-television documentary, Milou’s Strijd Gaat Door, became one of the year’s most-watched programs and was the broadcaster’s entry for the International Emmy Awards.
Cover Image: Milou Verhoof prior to her assisted suicide at the age of 17-years old.
