Teenager in the Netherlands euthanized after being raped as a child

A Dutch teenager who was raped as a child has been allowed to die by rape. She had struggled with depression and anorexia for years after being raped as a young child.

Noa Pothoven, from Arnhem in the Netherlands, explained her decision to end her life in a now private Instagram post last week. She said the trauma she had to live with after being raped in childhood had become unbearable.

She died over the weekend in a hospital bed at her family home.

“After years of fighting and arguing, I am exhausted,” she wrote.

“I stopped eating and drinking for some time and after many discussions and examinations it was decided to let me go because my suffering is unbearable.”

The teenager, who published an autobiography called “Winning or Learning” in 2018 detailing her struggles with PTSD, depression, anorexia and self-harm, also asked her followers not to try to talk her out of her decision, adding that it was “final” and “not impulsive.”

“Love in this case means letting go,” she concluded her post.

Noa’s sister, Isa Pothoven, posted a moving tribute on Instagram after the teenager’s euthanasia on Sunday, remembering her loved one as a “kind, beautiful and caring person.”

“Sleep well, honey, we will miss you,” she wrote in a now-deleted post.

“Close your eyes and think of the beautiful place you are going to. We will have to let you go.”

According to local reports, Pothoven began starving earlier this month and her parents and doctors decided not to force-feed her despite her wishes.

According to Gelderland, a local news channel in the Netherlands, Pothoven went to an assisted suicide clinic in Levenseind ​​last year without her parents’ knowledge and was told she could not have the procedure.

She also requested electroshock therapy, but was denied.

Dutch law allows euthanasia as long as it is carried out in accordance with the strict provisions of the controversial “Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedure) Act”, which came into force in 2002.

In the Netherlands, children as young as 12 can request euthanasia, but patients under 16 require the consent of their parents.

In 2017, 6,585 deaths from legal euthanasia were reported in the country.

The Samaritans offer a listening service which is available 24 hours a day on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland (calling this number is FREE and will not appear on your phone bill).

You can reach Mind by phone at 0300 123 3393 (Tuesday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.).

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