Klazien Alberda has passed away at the age of 91. She is the founder of the Dutch Association for a Voluntary End of Life.
In Vinkega, Friesland, close to Wilhelminaoord, she laid the foundation for the first euthanasia law. This was passed in 2001 in the Senate.
From the beginning, the goal of Alberda and the association was to make euthanasia socially acceptable. Today, the association provides information, among other things, but it also still fights for more freedom of choice around the end of life.
The Dutch Association for a Voluntary End of Life was founded in 1973. The reason was a lawsuit against a general practitioner from Noordwolde. She had committed euthanasia on her sick mother from Assen. The doctor received a prison sentence of one week for this.
Watch a conversation from 2001 between Klazien Alberda and former RTV Drenthe reporter Andries Ophof: