A petition calling for euthanasia to be fully decriminalised will be debated in parliament after receiving nearly 75,000 signatures.

Campaign group Stichting Levenseinderegie wants the decision to be taken out of the hands of doctors and entrusted with specialist “end of life support workers”, with patients having the final say.

Wim van Dijk, a retired psychologist who founded Stichting Levenseinderegie, was convicted last year of breaking the Medicines Act by supplying an anti-nausea drug to dozens of people as an “essential part” of a suicide kit.

He was given 40 hours’ community service and a six-month suspended jail sentence. Since his conviction he has turned his energies to reforming the law.

His group commissioned research which found that 71% of people support an alternative law under which “people decide for themselves if and when euthanasia and assisted suicide should be applied”.

Living wills would be used if people are no longer capable of deciding for themselves.

The group says a bill to regulate voluntary termination of life will be presented to parliament early in the New Year. Progressive-liberal party ˇD66, which is leading talks to form the next government, also favours decriminalisation.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide have been permitted in the Netherlands since 2002, but only under strict conditions and depend on doctors deciding that a person’s suffering is unbearable and cannot be relieved.

Nearly 10,000 people died through euthanasia in 2025, but one in three requests are refused. All cases are referred to a special committee and doctors face prosecution if they do not comply with the terms.

Van Dijk has argued the current law required doctors to make subjective judgments about a patient’s level of suffering that they could not reliably gauge, leading to inconsistencies.

Doctors can also refuse to grant euthanasia requests on grounds of conscience.