More cases of assisted suicide
THREE more terminally ill patients are set to take their plight for assisted suicides to the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, following in the footsteps of Robin StranshamFord, who achieved a successful ruling in that court recently.
Dignity SA spokesman Lee Last said the organisation, which supported Stranshamin court, was preparing three new cases with the aim to change the law to allow assisted suicides for terminally ill people.
“After Robin’s success, we now have three more cases. These are urgent matters and they will be presented in court soon,” he said.
Last said Dignity SA was protecting the identities of the applicants.
Judge Hans Fabricius granted the order two hours after Stranshamdied on April 30.
Judge Fabricius has since refused an application by the government to rescind the order, saying that the Constitutional Court was best-equipped to make a ruling on the matter. The government is expected to apply for leave to appeal against that judgment on June 2.
Dignity SA founder Professor Sean Davison said: “Ultimately, Parliament is guided by the courts. We cannot have the one saying you will go to jail for assisted deaths and the other saying it can be allowed.”
Davison – who served a fivemonth detention in New Zealand in 2010 after he helped his 85-year-old mother in an assisted suicide – said Dignity SA aimed to keep the momentum going.
“That reality has now become a problem for the Department of Justice and Correctional Services.
“What is happening now is evidence that our concerns were real. We feared more people would come forward, and our stance has not changed. We have the same reservations, but each case has its own merits which need to be considered,” said spokesman advocate Mthunzi Mhaga.
Health spokesman Joe Maila said: “We will be appealing against the Stransham-Ford ruling and will of course be standing by the law with regard to future cases.”
The South African Medical Association has since moved to discourage doctors from “physicianassisted suicides”.
Association vice-chairman Mark Sonderup said: “We have cautioned doctors against taking part in assisted suicides. The central ethical tenet for physicians is quite clear: doctors are there to preserve the sanctity of life.”