She is suing the state, to decide for herself about death

The father of Janine de Graaf-Klunder from Meppel (60) was demented when he ended up in hospital for something else. There he lay in a so-called ‘tent bed’, a closed cabin that is placed on top of the bed. He was safer in the small space, so he could no longer get out of bed on his own. Janine de Graaf-Klunder slept on a stretcher next to him. “‘If I can’t take care of myself anymore, I don’t want to go on,’ he has always said.” Now that moment had arrived. “But we couldn’t do anything for him.” Euthanasia was not an option, because due to his condition he was no longer allowed to decide on it.

De Graaf-Klunder has experienced more moments when a quick death was desired, but was not realized. The first time made a big impression: she was just eighteen and started as a nurse in the hospital. “There was a very sick gentleman. And he said with big pleading eyes: ‘Please help me’.” According to De Graaf-Klunder, he asked if she could help him put an end to it. “I could shake his hand, or have a drink of water, call his family. But I couldn’t offer him what he wanted most.”

Her experiences have shaped her conception of death: she wants people to be able to decide for themselves about the end of life. “But I feel hindered by the state.”

That is why she is one of the thirty plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the state that the Cooperative Last Will (CLW) initiated. The CLW (almost thirty thousand paying members) focuses on the end of life in its own management. The plaintiffs want the criminalization of assisted suicide to be dropped. They also believe that means to end life should be made legally available.

“We all think it’s so sad when cats and dogs suffer,” says Janine de Graaf-Klunder . “An incontinent cat gets an injection and can go to heaven. But with humans it all has to be so complicated.”

The group of claimants consists of people who want to have their own means to die, but also of relatives of people who committed suicide under dire circumstances. “There are also claimants who were interrogated by the police after the death of their loved one,” says CLW chairman Jos van Wijk. “And people whose euthanasia request was rejected.”

The claimants and the CLW invoke the European Convention on Human Rights, in which the right to self-determination is established. According to the organization, this right also applies to the end of life.

There is little chance that the judge will impose that the criminalization of assisted suicide will be dropped, experts told NRC earlier, because primacy lies with the legislator with regard to these kinds of fundamental questions.

During a wakeful night next to her father’s tent bed, Janine de Graaf-Klunder wrote a letter to Coöperatie Laatste Wil. At the time, the organization had just announced that it wanted to start the process, and she offered herself as a plaintiff.

Finally she found the drug, which she has in a locker at home

Two tons of donations

The main goal of the Last Will Cooperative is to provide its members with a means to “humanely” end their lives; something that is now illegal. Under certain circumstances, an exception is only made for doctors, which is laid down in the Euthanasia Act. For many of the claimants, euthanasia is too cumbersome a route to death: to be assigned it, you must already be very ill, while they often want to be right in front of that moment.

In 2017, CLW thought it had found a drug that could be legally provided to members. ‘Medium X’ is available from wholesalers as it is normally used to keep laboratory fluids free of mold and bacteria. According to CLW, it is a humane drug, but there are stories of people who died in a very restless way after taking it. The Public Prosecution Service put a stop to the ambitious project, because it is seen as assisted suicide, and that is punishable by law. Since that reprimand, the CLW has suspended its plans.

Also read: An end of life with ‘middle x’ is not always peaceful

At the beginning of this year it turned out that several members and directors of CLW are suspected of, among other things, assisted suicide, chairman Jos van Wijk is being investigated for participating in a criminal organization aimed at assisted suicide. He denies that himself. The research is in its final phase.

Janine de Graaf-Klunder became a member of CLW around 2017. When it turned out that the organization was no longer allowed to provide the drug, she went looking for it herself. “I’m not that great physically,” she says. “I am a messy Monday morning product.” For example, she suffers a lot from back pain. “Maybe that’s why I look at it this way. I have a lovely husband and lovely children, family and friends. But if I think it’s right, it’s done.”

She eventually found the drug, which she kept in a locker at home. “I searched for a long time before I knew what to do and how to get it. I felt such relief once it was in.”

Coöperatie Laatste Wil pays the attorney’s fees itself. Last year, the organization called on its members to donate, which, according to chairman De Wijk, raised two hundred thousand. “We can cover the costs from that for the time being.”

But, he says, it will all take a while: “If the state is in the right, we will appeal and the other way around probably too.” It is not yet known when the first ruling will be. Van Wijk: “We have to have a lot of patience.”

Also read: This interview with Coöperatie Laatste Wil

You can talk about suicide at the national helpline 113 Suicide Prevention. Phone 0800-0113 or www.113.nl

A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of October 10, 2022