A physically healthy woman has revealed how she will be spending her final moments before being euthanized this month.
Zoraya ter Beek is a 29-year-old woman from Oldenzaal in the Netherlands and she is planning on being euthanized in early May.
Zoraya doesn't have any physical ailments, but she explained that her depression, autism, and borderline personality disorder have a dramatic impact on her daily life, and after being told "There’s nothing more we can do for you, it’s never gonna get any better" by her psychiatrist, she made the decision to end her life.
"I was always very clear that if it doesn’t get better, I can’t do this anymore," she told The Free Press.
She also detailed how she plans on spending her final moments before her life ends, stating that she wants a peaceful atmosphere as she passes away in her home on the couch.
"No music," she said. "I will be going on the couch in the living room."
She also assured the readers that the "doctor really takes her time," and it's not a rushed procedure.
"It is not that they walk in and say: lay down please!" she continued. "Most of the time it is first a cup of coffee to settle the nerves and create a soft atmosphere. Then she asks if I am ready.
"I will take my place on the couch," she stated before going on to add: "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."
Zoraya's boyfriend, a 40-year-old IT programmer, will be by her side throughout and has strict instructions on what to do with her ashes after she's been cremated.
She won't be having a funeral and instead, her boyfriend will scatter her ashes in "a nice spot in the woods" that they have chosen together.
"I’m a little afraid of dying, because it’s the ultimate unknown," she said. "We don’t really know what’s next - or is there nothing? That’s the scary part."
While the 29-year-old is pretty sure she wants to end her life, there have been a handful of critics that have slammed the country's laws surrounding euthanasia.
Credit: Sandy Huffaker/Getty
"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," Stef Groenewoud, a healthcare ethicist at Theological University Kampen, in the Netherlands, told the outlet.
"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," Groenewoud added.
Theo Boer, a healthcare ethics professor at Protestant Theological University also agreed with the perspective and after he recalled the time that he served on a euthanasia review board in the country, he confirmed that he resigned due to the subsequent evolvement of the practice.
"I entered the review committee in 2005, and I was there until 2014," Boer said. "In those years, I saw the Dutch euthanasia practice evolve from death being a last resort to death being a default option."
The Netherlands became the first country in the world to make euthanasia legal in 2001.
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