A few theories on that Dutch euthanasia story

Plus: the progressive gaze, a new tiki recipe, and more

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1. A take I haven’t written elsewhere

A few theories on that Dutch euthanasia story

(via)

Last week,

The Free Press

published a report on people—sometimes quite young people—seeking euthanasia not for terminal physical illness but for mental illness.

Now, the primary subject of the story, a 28-year-old Dutch woman named Zoraya ter Beek who “expects to be euthanized in early May” because of her “depression and autism and borderline personality disorder,” disputed the story on X (formerly Twitter). She claimed inaccuracies and sketchy reporting practices but didn’t say specifically what was wrong.

At least, she hadn’t said it when I saw the posts. Last I looked, she’d deleted her account, which deleted the tweets, so I’m not sure if she ever gave more details about her allegation. To my knowledge, however, she did not dispute the basic account (that she is seeking euthanasia for mental illness), and in any case, it’s true that this scenario is possible under Dutch law (as well as Belgian law) and may be legalized in Canada, too.

I’ve been chewing over the story because it seems to me there’s an odd tension here.