There are moments in human history when reality surpasses even the darkest science fiction scenario. The news of 17-year-old Milou Verhoof’s death in the Netherlands is not merely a tragedy; it is the ultimate indictment of the total failure of supposedly progressive, civilized, and developed Western societies. A girl of just seventeen—who should have been dreaming of the future, falling in love, and discovering the world—received a lethal injection in the bed of her own room. And the most terrifying part? It all took place entirely legally, with the state’s institutional approval and the passive acceptance of a society that has lost every genuine human instinct.
Society betrayed Milou. Having failed to protect her, it subsequently failed to heal her. Thus, Milou is now dead, while her tormentors remain alive. Euthanasia was approved on the grounds of “unbearable mental anguish.” The Netherlands has legally permitted euthanasia since 2002 and is one of the few countries that allow it for minors over the age of 12 on psychiatric grounds, subject to extremely strict conditions. However, the system in the Netherlands is deeply flawed, as oversight of euthanasia can only take place after the act has been committed. Hence the reaction from the doctors and psychiatrists who brought the issue to public attention.
Milou’s case exposes, in the most brutal manner, the deep rot concealed behind the façade of Western prosperity. We live in a world that styles itself as “humane,” yet in reality, it suffers from an incurable, frigid bourgeois apathy.
Modern Western metropolises have turned into factories of isolation and loneliness. Confined within the microcosms of our screens and individual pursuits, we have developed an unprecedented immunity to the suffering of those around us. When a teenager cries out for help—crumbling under the weight of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress following horrific sexual abuse—the response of “advanced” society is not an embrace, devoted care, or unwavering support. The response is the bureaucratic management of their death.
The legalization of euthanasia for psychiatric reasons among minors represents the culmination of this moral capitulation. Under the guise of respecting “individual freedom” and “self-determination,” Western societies are simply washing their hands of the matter. It is far easier, faster, and more cost-effective for a healthcare system to authorize a lethal injection than to radically overhaul mental health infrastructure and stand by a wounded human being for as long as it takes. The concept of “unbearable mental anguish” is now being used as a convenient legal loophole for society to rid itself of the “problematic” and the “sick”—those who do not fit the molds of productivity and artificial happiness.
The fact that fourteen doctors and psychiatrists felt compelled to appeal to the public prosecutor, voicing serious concerns about whether a 17-year-old could truly be deemed “beyond therapeutic recovery,” reveals the magnitude of this crime. How is it possible for a medical board to decide that there is no hope at all for a seventeen-year-old—an age when the brain and personality are still taking shape? What has become of faith in humanity, in science, and in healing? The answer is simple: it has been replaced by cynicism. Medicine is transforming from a science dedicated to preserving life into an agent facilitating death.
Even the stance of the parents—who felt they had no choice but to consent, fearing their daughter might otherwise take her own life in isolation—illustrates the utter dead end to which this culture of resignation leads. When a family reaches the point of viewing the state-sanctioned killing of their child as an “act of love” or “relief,” it means the social safety net has completely disintegrated. Society left that family all alone, helpless in the darkness, until the darkness swallowed them all.
Milou wrote online that she longed for peace of mind. Yet, what she needed was not the eternal darkness of the grave, but a society that would hold her hand and show her that her life had value. The West failed miserably to show her that.
