Dutch scientist, professor of medicine, D66 politician, Dutch Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport and honorary Minister of State.
Els Borst grew up in Amsterdam. Her father was as an adjunct director of a mattress factory, her mother was housewife. She was their only child. During wartime (1940-1945) she experienced how her Jewish school friends disappeared. She had no idea what happened to them. On 12 March 1945 she was forced as a child to watch the execution of 30 prisoners at the Weteringplantsoen. Passengers (including children) were forced to watch this act of German terror. She was shocked, decided to become a pediatrician and to work for a better and more humane world.
Medical career
After finishing the Barlaeus Gymnasium (1950), she studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam (1950-1958). After becoming a physician (29 October 1958, A’dam) she worked as a resident at the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis hospital specializing in pediatrics (1956-1960) and immunohaematology (1960-1965). From 1965 till 1969 she worked as a scientist at Utrecht University studying immunohaematology. This resulted in a dissertation “Rhesusimmunisatie, ontstaan en preventie” (Rhesus immunisation, development and prevention) at the University of Amsterdam on 16 March 1972.
In 1969 she became head of the Blood Service of the Academic Hospital of Utrecht (UMC) and in 1976 she became medical director of the UMC (1976-1985). She left the UMC to become vice-chair of the Health Council (1 Jan 1986 – 22 Aug 1994), an advisory board of the government. On 30 June 1992 she was elected as a professor at the University of Amsterdam with the mission “Evaluatie-onderzoek van het klinisch handelen” which deals with evidence based medicine. Her oration was held on 1 July 1992: Geneeskunde op recept? (Medicine on receipt?). She left this post on 22 August 1994 when she became Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport. She was also chairperson of the College for Blood Transfusion and Committee on Research in Medical Ethics and member of many more advisory boards.
Political career
In 1968 she joined Democrats 66 (D66), a moderate left wing liberal Party that was founded two years earlier by the journalist Hans van Mierlo (1931-2010). D66 became a home for “not left, not right wing” secular people that did not want to vote on the Christian middle parties. Els Borst herself came from a Dutch Protestant reformed family, but she was not member of any church.
From 22 August 1994 to 22 July 2002 she was Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport in the “Purple” Cabinets Kok I and II, cabinets that excluded the Christian middle parties that had dominated Dutch politics for decades. She was Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 3 August 1998 until 22 July 22 2002 in the Second purple cabinet.
She was party leader of D66 from 15 February 1998 until 6 May 1998. D66 lost ten seats in the 1998 elections. She was political leader of the D66 fraction in the House of Representatives from 7 May 1998 until 14 May 1998. She was a member of the House of Representatives from 19 May 1998 until 3 August 1998.
Achievements
Her direct (as a minister) and many more indirect (as an non-governmental advisor) contributions to the Dutch Health system are too many to sum up here. See Internet resources like the Wikipedia and Parlement & Politiek for details. But medical-ethical questions always puzzled her. Being a former pediatrician she made laws that restricted the delivery of alcohol and tobacco to the youth. Probably she is best known for the Dutch Euthanasia Act (Stb. 194 of 2001). This since 2002 active legislation permits euthanasia done by physicians only under certain conditions. Criteria include unbearable and hopeless suffering, correct information provided to the patient (informed consent) and openness towards independent peer doctors that before and after the deadly deed must check if the conditions are met.
On 8 February 2003 she became a honorary member of D66. That year she was also granted a major WHO price.
On 8 March 2012 she won the Aletta Jacobsprijs, named after the first Dutch female physician and feminist “avant la lettre”.
From 21 December 2012 till her death she held the honorary position of Dutch Minister of state.
Personal data and mysterious death
Else Eilers married 1960 the bacteriologist and gynecologist Jan Borst (died 1988). They had three children.
On Monday 10 February 2014 she was found death by worried friends in the garage of her house at the Ruysdaellaan 21 at Bilthoven where she lived since 1965. Police concluded that she was victim of a criminal act that happened on 8 or 9 February. She was last seen at a D66 congress on 8 February. On March 11 the police concluded that Borst died on February 8 some hours after attending the D66 party congress and that she was a victim of either murder or manslaughter.

Link to Wikipedia biography
Link to Astrodienst discussion forum