17-Year-Old Starves Herself After Finding Life Unbearable Following Sexual Abuse

A 17-year-old girl chose death over life after being traumatized in her earlier years by sexual abuse.

Noa Pothoven died at home on Sunday after being given legal permission to starve herself after being denied the right to end her life by euthanasia, The Sun reports. Her death came after feeling she could no longer deal with the pain and suffering she endured after being attacked and sexually assaulted several times, beginning when she was 11-years-old.

"I relive the fear, that pain every day," she said last year, reports DailyMail, after being raped at the age of 14 by two men. "Always scared, always on my guard. And to this day my body still feels dirty. My house has been broken into, my body, that can never be undone."

Over the years, Pothoven was in and out of hospitals and specialist centers, and her parents did not believe she really wanted to die. Pothoven shared on Instagram prior to her death, "Maybe this comes as a surprise to some, given my posts about hospitalization, but my plan has been there for a long time and is not impulsive."

She continued, "I will get straight to the point: within a maximum of 10 days I will die. After years of battling and fighting, I am drained. I have quit eating and drinking for a while now, and after many discussions and evaluations, it was decided to let me go because my suffering is unbearable."

The teenager added that she never felt as though she was "alive," but rather surviving, writing, "I breathe, but I no longer live."

The Dutch teenager asked her friends and followers on Instagram to "not convince me that this is not good, this is my decision and it is final. Love is letting go, in this case."

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect new findings in the death of Noa Pothoven.