A 17-year-old girl who was raped as a young child has been legally euthanised at her home after her suffering became “unbearable.”
Noa Pothoven died on Sunday in an “end-of-life clinic” bed in her living room in the Netherlands after battling mental health problems for years.
The teenager from Arnhem was granted the right to end her own life after sexual assaults and rapes as a small girl led her to develop post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anorexia.
She was attacked three times as a youngster.
The first two incidents were molestations when she attended children’s parties aged 11 and 12 before she was raped by two men when she was 14 in the Elderveld neighbourhood of the city.
For years she never revealed the horrific abuse because it left her feeling ashamed, the 17-year-old said.
Last year, Noa said that she had reported the attacks to police saying she hoped the men will one day be arrested.
She told the Gelderlander in December that she initially contacted the Life End Clinic in The Hague without telling her loved ones.
The teenager said: “Out of fear and shame, I relive the fear, that pain every day. Always scared, always on my guard. And to this day my body still feels dirty.
“My house has been broken into, my body, that can never be undone. ”
Noa spent her final hours saying goodbye to her heartbroken friends and family.
The day before she died, the Dutch teen posted a message on Instagram revealing her decision to die.
She wrote: “I deliberated for quite a while whether or not I should share this, but decided to do it anyway.
“Maybe this comes as a surprise to some, given my posts about hospitalisation, but my plan has been there for a long time and is not impulsive.
“I will get straight to the point: within a maximum of 10 days I will die.”
She explained that she made the difficult decision after “battling” mental anguish for most of her life.
Noa continued: “After years of battling and fighting, I am drained. “I have quit eating and drinking for a while now, and after many discussions and evaluations, it was decided to let me go because my suffering is unbearable.”
She added that while she was “alive” she felt as if she was merely surviving, writing: “I breathe, but I no longer live.”
The Dutch teen asked her friends to “’not convince me that this is not good, this is my decision and it is final.
“Love is letting go, in this case.”
Source: The Sun
Note: Clarified reporting has revealed that although Pothoven did request to be medically euthanized, she was refused the deadly “treatment.” Tragically, Pothoven died of self-starvation on June 2, 2019. Source: The Daily Wire