Right-to-die ruling long overdue
THE article “Right-to-die ruling a gift to humanity” (May 3) could not have said it better. Judge Hans Fabricius of the High Court in Pretoria ruled that a suffering Robin StranshamFord could be assisted in terminating his life and that the person who assisted him would not be liable for prosecution. This was a brave, let alone remarkable, legal precedent, and was long overdue.
Needless to say, the moral and religious pundits will be up in arms against this “heresy”, but the human suffering, especially in terms of a debilitating terminal illness, is inexplicable if we are not the ones bearing the pain.
Stransham-Ford’s extraordinary request could not have been an easy one, and the judge’s decision would have been an even weightier one as he let humanity trump societal ethics.
Assisted suicide (euthanasia) will always court controversy, but we simply cannot allow a moral or an ethic that feels no pain or bears no suffering to decide on a life that is consumed with constant and excruciating pain.
I am acutely aware that some may say that this opens up a can of worms — but I have faith in our jurists that every case will be judged on its merits and this precedent is not carte blanche for future applications.
We need to revisit our conscience and, while every life is considered intrinsically sacred, we cannot spectate human suffering of an extreme nature and not allow our humanness to intervene. — Narendh Ganesh, Durban North