In a landmark decision the Dutch Supreme Court has ruled that doctors may not perform euthanasia or help with suicide unless the request comes from a patient suffering from a medically classifiable physical or psychiatric sickness or disorder. Simply being “tired of life” is no basis for doctors to act.

In what the media have branded the “tired of life case,” the limits of euthanasia practice have been defined, after the case took two years to reach the highest court in the land. The decision has been welcomed by the Royal Dutch Medical Association for …