A devoted couple who spent their lives together after meeting as small children have died side by side in what is just the latest case of double euthanasia in the Netherlands.

Jan Faber and Els van Leeningen, aged 70 and 71, were married for almost five decades before they ended their lives by lethal injection at the same time in early June.

In the moments before their deaths, the pair were surrounded by friends and family, including their son, who had found his parents’ decision to end their lives hard to take.

‘You don’t want to let your parents die,’ Jan said of his reaction. ‘So there have been tears – our son said, “Better times will come, better weather”- but not for me.’ Els said before her planned death: ‘There is no other solution.’

Jan, who worked as a cargo boat operator, had been suffering from severe back pain for over 20 years, while his wife was diagnosed with dementia in 2022 which became so debilitating that she struggled to form sentences.

Jan Faber and Els van Leeningen were married for almost five decades before they ended their lives at the same time in early June. The couple are pictured just days before their deaths.

‘I’ve lived my life, I don’t want pain anymore,’ Jan told the BBC. ‘The life we’ve lived, we’re getting old [for it]. We think it has to be stopped.’

The couple enjoyed a lifelong partnership, first meeting in kindergarten. Jan went on to play hockey for the Netherlands’ national youth team before training as a sports coach, while Els became a primary school teacher.

They shared a passion for the sea, and spent much of their lives living on boats.

This shared interest was turned into a career, with the pair buying a cargo boat and setting up a goods transportation company.

They had a son, who went to boarding school in the week while they lived on the water, and who they would take on sailing holidays.

After more than a decade of heavy lifting and hands-on work, Jans’ back pain became serious, and the couple moved back on land into a caravan.

Surgery in 2003 did little to alleviate his pain and he was forced to stop working.

While Els was still working as a teacher, Jans’ physical limitations and the lower quality of life they resulted in encouraged the couple to start thinking about assisted dying, and they joined NVVE – Netherlands’ ‘right to die’ organisation.

Els retired in 2018, and was beginning to show early signs of dementia, a disease her father had suffered with and died from.

She was officially diagnosed in November 2022, and it progressively got worse to the point where she struggled to construct sentences.

The couple’s GP – like many doctors in the Netherlands – was uncomfortable with accepting their case for euthanasia due to Els’ dementia, which can create uncertainty around a patient’s capacity to give consent.

The couple turned to the Centre of Expertise on Euthanasia, which gives advice on assisted dying and has a mobile clinic which carries out procedures in patients’ homes.

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