The Dutch government intends to draft a law that would legalize assisted suicide for people who feel they have "completed life," but are not necessarily terminally ill, it said on Wednesday.
The Netherlands was the first country to legalize euthanasia, in 2002, but only for patients who were considered to be suffering unbearable pain with no hope of a cure.
In a letter to parliament, the health and justice ministers said details remain to be worked out but that people who "have a well-considered opinion that their life is complete, must, under strict and careful criteria, be allowed to finish that life in a manner dignified for them."