Euthanizing a toddler is not compassionate
Christianity Today
October 21, 2026
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Illustration by Elizabeth Kaye / Source Images: Unsplash
A couple in the Netherlands euthanized their toddler. I read the headline again, sure I’d missed a keyword. I had not.
A child with the same diagnosis (and similar disabilities) as my own daughter, Eliza, had died—not from natural causes or a horrific accident but by choice. Her parents, surely overwhelmed by fear and exhaustion, chose euthanasia to end their child’s life.
Since 2024, children in the Netherlands ages 1 to 11 who have medical needs “without prospect of improvement” have been legally permitted to have their lives “terminated.” This little one was the first.
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We don’t know what it’s like to have a child with this diagnosis, so we can’t say anything about it, an online commenter wrote. But I do know. My daughter, Eliza, is finishing her final year of elementary school.
As I see my daughter’s disabilities (nonspeaking, aspirating, significant cognitive and physical disability) listed as reasons to end a life, I’m transported back to our neurology clinic.
“We don’t know,” the physician told us then, pushing a loafered foot across the floor as he rolled from computer to exam table. “As much as we want to know everything, the brain is a mystery.”
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I ran my hand through my toddler’s curls, loosening EEG glue from her hair. She joined our family through adoption when she was a few weeks old. We knew she had Down syndrome. That wasn’t why we’d come to this appointment.
“Infantile spasms,” the neurologist said, a hint of apology in his voice. I tried to follow as he continued: severe epilepsy, developmental delay, difficult to treat. I glanced at my husband, who looked as overwhelmed as I felt. At the time, all four of our children were under the age of 6. How would we do this? We nodded as the doctor laid out a plan involving experimental (and expensive) medicine.
The report from the Dutch committee that reviews termination-of-life requests listed “no prospect of improvement” as a valid reason to end that toddler’s life.
“There was no verbal development at all. … Only minimal communication was possible,” the report states. “The prognosis was that the child would be dependent on support with all activities of daily living for the rest of their life.”
Needing support doesn’t make us less human. The apostle Paul asserts that worth isn’t measured through achievements (1 Cor. 12:22) and that those deemed weakest or least important might actually be the most necessary.
“In the course of the child’s short life, there was a complete lack of development or improvement,” the report continues. It goes on to state that “every facet of ‘being human’ … was severely affected.”
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### Why Christians Oppose Euthanasia
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Disability, no matter how profound, does not and will not ever make us less human. To argue otherwise is to assent to the eugenicist logic of the Nazi program that killed 250,000 “unproductive” patients and sterilized tens of thousands of institutionalized people in this country for the “protection and health of the state.” It’s to insist that people are “better dead than disabled,” as one disability rights group bluntly put it.
As Christians, we don’t assent to eugenics, because we proclaim that our being made in the image of God isn’t contingent on whether we speak to communicate or whether we check off boxes on a developmental survey. The imago Dei insists that every life, no matter the diagnosis or delay, bears the image of the one who gives each breath. We do not have to “improve” ourselves to be children of God.
Another comment appeared on the news report: It’s the compassionate choice. Ending an almost-2-year-old’s life is lauded by many as a kindness.
Those Dutch parents believed this. They didn’t decide to end a burdensome treatment. They didn’t enter into hospice care. They, with their doctor, chose to end their child’s life—to take away suffering, maybe, but also any possibility of bearing witness to a miracle.
The child who died didn’t respond to epilepsy medicine. Neither did my daughter.
I don’t know the fullness of the child who died or the exact agony these parents felt. But I know the damage infantile spasms inflict. I know what it’s like to lie awake in bed, worried about the future. I know what it’s like to spoon-feed a 10-year-old every meal, to never hear your child say, “I love you, Mommy.”
Did those parents decide the emotional, physical, and mental cost of their child being alive came at a price that could no longer be paid? Raising a child with multiple diagnoses is costly: managing health care expenses, balancing appointments, providing around-the-clock care.
I know what that’s like.
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I also know what it’s like to have somebody believe in your child, to have a school paraprofessional look at your first grader, who, in many ways, is like an infant, and declare that she’s going to walk at her fifth-grade graduation. I know what it’s like when someone holds hope for you.
I know what it’s like to walk into worship spaces where children and adults with disabilities are not just welcomed but wanted. To receive check-ins and casseroles. To get respite care from a neighbor. To be invited to another child’s birthday party because they chose to invite every student in their class. This is what the people of Christ have done—and still do—for us. They have loved our daughter—and our entire family—as themselves. They have been like Jesus, who turned his attention to the young and the sick and showed them they were beloved.
We’ll never know what the future might have held for the toddler who died. My heart breaks for his or her parents, who will never again see their child in pain, yes, but will also never bear witness to the miracle of their child being fearfully and wonderfully alive, having thoughts and experiencing emotions even if unable to express them. These parents will never see others loving their child; they will never see others blessed by their child, as our community has been blessed by our daughter.
My daughter defied odds and began walking at 8 years old. This spring, my family will do something I never imagined possible when she was a toddler—we’ll watch Eliza stand from her wheelchair and cross the stage in her adaptive shoes for her fifth-grade graduation. We won’t cheer based on her ability; we’ll celebrate because she is a beautiful glimpse of our Creator. What a gift to know—and be known by—our daughter.
Eliza exists because God breathed life into her. Her on-fire brain and disabled body were made in the image of God. And so was that other little one. The medical report didn’t list his or her name, so we can’t know it. What a comfort that God does.
Kayla Craig’s books include Our Daily Breath: 365 Prayers and Practices that Whisper Peace in a Shouting World (2026), To Light Their Way: A Collection of Prayers and Liturgies for Parents (2021), and Every Season Sacred: Prayers, Reflections, and Invitations to Nourish Your Soul and Nurture Your Family Throughout the Year (2023). She writes a weekly newsletter and lives in Iowa with her husband and four kids.
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