By Elena Salvoni. 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. 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 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. 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 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 , and was beginning to show early signs of dementia, a disease her father had suffered with and died from.
