An organisation set up to campaign for the right to die will no longer organise meet-ups in members’ homes, in the wake of an investigation into a man suspected of distributing suicide powder to hundreds of people.

The Coöperatie Laatste Wil (CLW) has written to its members saying that it wants to work within the law and is stopping the meet-ups for as long as criminal acts go on.

Earlier this month, a 28-year-old man from Eindhoven named as Alex S was arrested and remanded in custody for 30 days on suspicion of selling ‘suicide powder’ to at least dozens of people.

The man was said to be a member of CWL, which has apparently been investigating what role he played there, if any.

Police began to investigate him after the death of a woman in Best this year, but he had already attracted the attention of local broadcaster Omroep Brabant as far back as 2018. He is thought to have sold the ‘suicide powder’ via online market website Marktplaats for as little as €20 plus postage.

Such substances are not banned in the Netherlands, partly because ministers fear that this would put the names of products in the public domain, but euthanasia is tightly controlled and only a doctor can help someone end their life, under strict conditions.

Living room meets

Jos van Wijk, chairman of the CWL, told DutchNews.nl that the organisation has 26,700 members and around 60 people who would lead discussion groups, held in members’ living rooms.

‘We asked them about what was happening during the living room meet-ups,’ he said. ‘They told us that at any rate during the meetings there was no distribution of any substance but that they had the impression that afterwards, some people might have ordered them not only for themselves but possibly for others.

‘If you order [fatal substances] for yourself, this is not a punishable act but the moment that you order for others and share with others, then you are liable to punishment. We did not want the risk that we were promoting punishable activities, so we are stopping the living room meetings, to investigate what is going on.’