DignitySA, which is campaigning for the decriminalisation of assisted dying – and which has raised R4.6m of its R7m target so far – believes the Constitutional Court, not public opinion, should shape South Africa’s legal position on the issue, reports Business Day.
Speaking at the Cape Town Press Club this week, DignitySA chair Willem Landman said that while the organisation had launched legal action in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) last month seeking to have the common law prohibition on assisted dying declared unconstitutional and invalid, it was aware that it would have to accept whatever the outcome was.
It has asked the court to direct Parliament to draft new legislation to enable voluntary self-administered and physician-assisted medically assisted dying for people with a terminal illness or irremediable condition.
“Despite our personal, religious (or) cultural differences, we have to accept what the Constitution determines, even if we do not agree with it,” he said.
Landman said the papers have cited the Minister of Justice & Constitutional Development, Minister of Health, the National Prosecuting Authority and the Health Professions Council of South Africa as respondents. They have yet to indicate whether they intend to oppose the matter.
Landman appealed to palliative care practitioners opposed to medically assisted dying to consider the patients whose suffering could not be alleviated by palliative care.
DignitySA anticipated palliative care practitioners who do not support assisted dying would ask the court for permission to provide their input as amicus curiae, he added.
“Palliative care and medical assistance in dying (MAiD) should be understood as synergistic and complementary. MAiD should only be the end point of palliative care continued for the few who need it and should not be offered where palliative care is absent or compromises freedom of choice on account of being inadequate or substandard.”
DignitySA is advocating for palliative care services to be improved hand-in- hand with the legalisation of assisted dying, he noted.
The Association of Palliative Care Centres has previously said it does not endorse medically assisted dying as part of palliative care.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
DignitySA launches legal challenge for assisted dying
Why SA needs both palliative care and assisted dying
Euthanasia activist says SA doctors support legalising assisted dying