When former Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt and his wife Eugenie got married, they recited to love and support each other until death do them part. But at the time of truth they decided that not even the death of either of them would separate them, and a few days ago, at the age of 93, they said goodbye to this earthly world in a double act of euthanasia, which is legal in the countries
History, mythology and cinema are full of cases of lovers who die together, or in each other’s arms, or a suicidal self unable to accept the death of the partner (Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, Aida and Ramses, Mark Antony and Cleopatra, those of Teruel…), but in very few the final act of love happens simultaneously and arm in arm, perfectly synchronized, like that of Eugenie and Dries. Before the medical advances that make painless and controlled euthanasia possible, there was always a poisonous potion, a dagger, a knife in between. Unless, like what happened to Bonnie and Clyde, it was the police who shot them.
Another crucial difference is that this is not a tragic love story with an inevitably unhappy ending, but a happy story of 70 years of love and death in old age (both were 93), then of a prosperous life that gave them three children, only to be interrupted by the disease that had deteriorated the health of both of them to the point of deciding that it was not worth continuing to suffer.
The Dutch Christian Democrat prime minister and his wife met when they were studying at the University of Nijmegen, the same town where they are buried, and he always referred to her as “my girl”. The politician, of Catholic tradition, worked as a diplomat in the EEC, was president of the European Council prior to Margaret Thatcher’s mandate and served as the country’s prime minister between 1977 and 1982. He was known for his sly sense of humor, grandiloquent language, firm convictions and a certain mysticism (his rivals called him the Jesuit). A great cyclist, he used to cycle long distances in the company of Dutch professionals participating in the Tour de France, and only gave up this passion, for health reasons, when he was about to turn 90. A cerebral haemorrhage greatly impaired his quality of life and deprived him of speech almost completely.
After retiring from the political spotlight, Dries van Agt adopted positions much more to the left than those he had defended in power at the head of Christian Democracy, and in 2010 he opposed the agreement between his former party and the ultra-right Geert Wilders. After visiting Israel in 1999, he founded a human rights organization called the Rights Forum (which is what broke the news of his and his wife’s death) and advocated for “a fair, equitable and sustainable European policy that guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people”, and described Benjamin Netanyahu as a “war criminal”.
Euthanasia (in which medical personnel inject or administer the drug that causes death) and assisted suicide (in which the patient himself participates) have been legal in the Netherlands since 2002 if specific requirements are met, such as “unbearable suffering without any prospect of improvement”, and a “voluntary, conscious and repeated” request. Two years ago (the latest for which there is data), 9,000 Dutch people ended their lives in this way, 58 in pairs, like Eugenie and Dries.
After Holland, a pioneer in the subject, Belgium and Luxembourg followed in their footsteps in legalizing euthanasia. It is currently allowed in nine countries (Spain, Portugal, Ecuador, Colombia, Canada and New Zealand, in addition to the previous ones), as well as in eleven North American states – Oregon was the first in 1997 – and throughout Australia , except for the Northern Territories and the capital Canberra, where it is being processed.
In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons voted in 2015 against legalizing the practice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (in Scotland, which has its own legal system, it is also not allowed), which is punishable by 14 years in prison. Former TV presenter Esther Rantzen, who is suffering from terminal cancer, is leading the campaign for a rethinking of the issue amid growing social and political pressure. In Switzerland, assisted suicide is completely legal, but euthanasia is not.
Dying together, arm in arm, after 70 years. A great love story for tomorrow, Valentine’s Day.
