Man guilty of assisting mother's death won't serve time A court in the Netherlands has ruled that a man found guilty of assisting the death of his 99-year-old mother should not go to jail due to the long time it took to bring the case to trial. They added that Albert Heringa "acted out of love" when he helped his take her life in 2008 after a doctor refused to help. The Netherlands was one of the first countries in the world to legalise euthanasia in 2002.