[imagesource:ionainstitute]

A physically healthy 28-year-old Dutch woman has decided to legally end her life due to her struggles with crippling depression, autism and borderline personality disorder, according to a report.

Zoraya ter Beek, who lives in a small village in the Netherlands, is now scheduled to be euthanised in May — despite having a life with her boyfriend and two cats.

Ter Beek, who once aspired to become a psychiatrist, has been dealing with mental health struggles her entire life, but decided to be euthanised after her doctors told her, “There’s nothing more we can do for you. It’s never gonna get any better.”

“I was always very clear that if it doesn’t get better, I can’t do this anymore,” ter Beek said. And she’s not alone in her desire to ‘end it’. A growing number of people who have been living in ‘pain’, in some cases due to diseases and conditions that are treatable, have decided to pursue euthanasia.

In many cases, ‘depression or anxiety amplified by economic uncertainty, climate change, social media and other issues’, make people consider this final act as the only bearable option.

Stef Groenewoud, a healthcare ethicist at Theological University Kampen in the Netherlands, says “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.”