Euthanasia has passed 10,000 deaths a year in the Netherlands for the first time, a quarter of a century after the country became the first in the world to legalise the practice.
The Regional Euthanasia Review Committees (RTE) recorded 10,341 procedures in 2025, more than 6 per cent of all deaths in the country. That was up 3.8 per cent on the 9,958 cases logged the previous year.
In the late 1990s, when euthanasia was already carried out under certain conditions before it was regulated, about 2,000 cases were reported each year. The total has since risen roughly fivefold.
A study commissioned by the Dutch health ministry attributed the increase primarily to a cultural shift rather than to any change in the law. Its lead author, Radboud University Medical Centre ethicist Els van Wijngaarden, said the legislation itself had not changed though its application had.
Van Wijngaarden linked part of the rise to an ageing population and more chronic illness, though she said shifting attitudes towards the end of life mattered more. Death had become easier to discuss with relatives and doctors, she added, while religious objections had weakened.
The share of cases involving cancer had fallen to about half, down from around 90 per cent in the late 1990s, as euthanasia for dementia and mental disorders grew more common.
The report also pointed to strain on the health system, noting that cutbacks and staff shortages in elderly and terminal care could reinforce a patient’s decision to seek euthanasia. Van Wijngaarden said she could not confirm a direct link and that more research would be needed.
Christian Union MP Mirjam Bikker, who had requested the study, called it alarming that care shortages appeared to feed the rise. Van Wijngaarden considered that reading too simplistic.
Three-quarters of those who died were aged over 70, the committees said, and more than 85 per cent had physical illnesses such as cancer or cardiovascular disease. Cases citing mental illness fell by almost a fifth to 174, while 499 involved dementia.
The 2025 figures also included one death of a person aged between 12 and 18. Dutch health minister Sophie Hermans separately confirmed the first euthanasia of a child under 12 since the rules were widened in 2024 to cover that age group.
The Netherlands remains one of the few countries to permit euthanasia for minors. Belgium, which legalised the practice in 2002 and dropped age limits for children in 2014, has recorded a steady climb of its own, while France recently approved an assisted-dying bill intended to curb “suicide tourism”.
