Soon, Irene Mekel will need to pick the day she dies.
She quite likes her life, living in a trim, airy house in Castricum, a Dutch village by the sea. But if her life is going to end the way she wants, she will have to pick a date, sooner than she might like.
“It’s a tragedy,” she said.
Ms. Mekel, 82, has Alzheimer’s disease. She knows what is coming. She is determined that she will never move to a nursing home, as she considers it a loss of dignity. As a Dutch citizen, she has applied for a medically assisted death.
Ms. Mekel joined a workshop where she learned how to draft an advance request document. Her family doctor could not provide euthanasia, so she was referred to the Euthanasia Expertise Center.