The number of medical crowdfunding campaigns in the Netherlands has increased significantly over the past five years, RTL Nieuws reported after speaking to the two largest crowdfunding platforms in the country – GoFundMe and WhyDonate. Both reported a significant increase in campaigns for medical reasons, often involving seriously ill people raising money for treatment or surgery abroad.

There are various reasons why people go abroad for treatment. For example, to get a treatment that is still being researched and not approved in the Netherlands yet. Or a treatment that is proven to work, but is unavailable in the Netherlands because it is too expensive. RTL spoke to a man who experienced great success with a bone marrow transplant in Mexico to halt his MS.

But according to Hafez Ismaïli M’Hamdi, Vice-Chair of the Centre for Ethics (CEG), there are also risks involved, primarily when desperate people go for treatments for which there is no evidence that they actually work. These treatments can sometimes even be harmful, he told RTL.

“People pin their last hopes on those treatments and raise a lot of money for them, but sometimes they end up getting even sicker. Then you are in a place you don’t know in the final phase of your life,” Ismaïli M’Hamdi said.

The CEG wants crowdfunding platforms to better monitor what information is shared and whether the information on which people base their donations is actually correct.

The crowdfunding platforms consider that an unreasonable demand.

GoFundMe told RTL Nieuws that it is an open platform that aims to make it as easy as possible for people to ask for help. “Ultimately, it is the donors themselves who decide whether they want to donate money,” spokesperson Peter Roeper said.

WhyDonate founder Niels Corver said that his platform cannot take the place of a doctor. “It is not up to a crowdfunding platform to determine whether a specific treatment is ‘sensible’ or ‘effective’ for an individual patient. That assessment lies with the patient.”

Both platforms said they consider it important that the people launching crowdfunding campaigns are honest. WhyDonate uses AI to check campaigns for signs of fraud or incorrect information. If the AI flags a campaign, staff members review it.