Despite being in love with her 40-year-old boyfriend and living with two cats, she is scheduled to be euthanised in May
Zoraya ter Beek, who is described as physically healthy, decided to legally end her life due to struggles with depression, autism and borderline personality disorder.
Ter Beek, who once aspired to be a psychiatrist, lives in a small village in the Netherlands near the German border.
Despite being in love with her 40-year-old boyfriend and living with two cats, she is scheduled to be euthanised in May having dealt with mental health struggles throughout her life.
According to an article in The Free Press, she said she decided to be euthanised after her doctors told her there was nothing more they could do for her.
“I was always very clear that if it doesn’t get better, I can’t do this anymore,” ter Beek said.
Ter Beek said a doctor will first give her a sedative, followed by a drug that will stop her heart as she lies on her couch.
Despite being in love with her 40-year-old boyfriend and living with two cats, Zoraya has chosen to die
Her boyfriend will be at her side until the end.
“The doctor really takes her time. It is not that they walk in and say, ‘lay down please’,” she is quoted as saying.
“Most of the time it is first a cup of coffee to settle the nerves and create a soft atmosphere,” she said.
“Then she asks if I am ready. I will take my place on the couch. She will once again ask if I am sure, and she will start up the procedure and wish me a good journey.
“Or, in my case, a nice nap, because I hate it if people say, ‘Safe journey.’ I’m not going anywhere.”
She plans to be cremated after she’s euthanised and there will be no funeral.
Ter Beek said her boyfriend will scatter her ashes in “a nice spot in the woods” that they have picked out.
“I’m a little afraid of dying, because it’s the ultimate unknown,” she admitted.
“We don’t really know what’s next—or is there nothing? That’s the scary part.”
Since the Netherlands became the first country in the world to make assisted suicide legal in 2001, it has become an increasingly popular option among the population.
In 2022, there were 8,720 euthanasia deaths in the Netherlands— representing roughly 5% of all the country’s deaths.
This is up from 14% from the year prior, according to Dutch media.
In February, the 93-year-old former Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt and his wife died hand in hand by euthanasia.
According to the Free Press, Stef Groenewoud, a healthcare ethicist at Theological University Kampen, in the Netherlands, said: “I’m seeing euthanasia as some sort of acceptable option brought to the table by physicians, by psychiatrists, when previously it was the ultimate last resort.
“I see the phenomenon especially in people with psychiatric diseases, and especially young people with psychiatric disorders, where the healthcare professional seems to give up on them more easily than before,” she added.