The doctor who helped her mother to die
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 24 November 2021
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise voluntary euthanasia: although the new law was ground-breaking, it was based in part on the result of a dramatic criminal trial that happened nearly three decades earlier, in 1973. The case concerned a doctor who helped her elderly and terminally ill mother to die after her mother had repeatedly begged her to do so. Dr Truus Postma was put on trial for carrying out voluntary euthanasia and was facing a sentence of up to 12 years if found guilty. Her dilemma as both a doctor and a daughter triggered a national debate about whether her actions were murder or mercy. The case broke taboos and led to the founding of the NVVE, a Dutch organisation which began to campaign for voluntary euthanasia to be made legal. Viv Jones speaks to Dr Postma’s daughter, Marga Postma, and to Klazien Albeda, founder of the NVVE.
(Photo: Dr Truus Postma outside court. Bert Verhoeff / Anefo. National Archives of the Netherlands.)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. |
| 0:29.2 | This is the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Viv Jones. |
| 0:39.2 | Today I'm taking you back to 1971 when the dramatic case of a Dutch doctor accused of carrying |
| 0:44.9 | out euthanasia triggered a national campaign to legalize it. |
| 0:48.9 | I have a lot of nice warm memories about my grandmother. |
| 0:53.6 | She really loves her grandchildren. |
| 0:56.2 | She was very warm and giving, giving us presents. |
| 1:00.1 | Maha Possma from a quiet village in the north of the Netherlands is named after her beloved grandmother Margina. |
| 1:07.0 | In October 1971, when Maha was 13, her grandmother died. |
| 1:12.0 | Maha was sad but not shocked. Her grandmother had been living in a nursing home and deteriorating first. |
| 1:18.0 | But it was a shock when a few days later she came home from school to find the police in the house, |
| 1:24.7 | questioning her parents on suspicion of killing her grandmother. |
| 1:28.2 | And that's how I found out that they helped my grandmother to die in an on-Earth merciful way. |
| 1:37.0 | Right away I had a relief about what they did and I thought it was very courageous but my mother was accused of so-called |
| 1:49.8 | murdering my grandmother. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.