Assisted dying and euthanasia laws and policies are gradually being reformed worldwide, and in South Africa, a key test on the right to die is moving forward with timelines set for the court hearing and more interest groups seeking to be admitted in the case, writes MedicalBrief.
While applications to be admitted as amicus curiae (friends of the court) in DignitySA’s ‘medical assistance in dying’ case are still being submitted, the Gauteng High Court has set timelines for exchanging papers well into 2027, reports Netwerk24.
At a case management meeting, the court decided to give all respondents until 30 April 2027 to file their papers. Heads of argument will be exchanged in August and October next year.
Although the Minister of Justice and the National Director of Public Prosecutions earlier indicated that they would abide by the court’s decision, these parties now want to oppose the matter.
DignitySA seeks to declare the common law prohibition against assisted dying unconstitutional and afford Parliament 24 months to enact legislation regulating medical assistance in dying.
Two more parties have now applied to be admitted as friends of the court: one group, comprising a senior counsel and orthopaedic surgeon, wants to argue that the prohibition stems from the influence of certain religions on Dutch-Roman and English Law, which ought not to be enforced on atheists and humanists.
The other group, Compassion SA, is a group of palliative care practitioners who oppose the application.
Spanish woman dies after euthanasia
Meanwhile, the death by euthanasia last week of Noelia Castillo (25) in Spain – after a long legal battle with her family – has reopened the debate on the law in that country, reports Euronews.
Castillo, whose victory in the lengthy court battle had thrust her story into the national spotlight, received the medication that ended her life after a Barcelona court rejected a last-ditch appeal by her family to halt the procedure.
The case had been closely watched since 2024, when a medical and legal committee in Catalonia approved her application because she suffered from a serious and incurable condition, with severe and chronic suffering.
Castillo had struggled with psychiatric illness since she was a teenager, and tried taking her life twice, the second time after she was sexually assaulted. The injuries she suffered from her second suicide attempt in 2022 left her unable to use her legs and in a wheelchair.
Her father appealed the court decision, claiming that his daughter’s mental health problems prevented her from making a free and informed decision, but the courts consistently ruled in her favour. The European Court of Human Rights also declined to intervene.
The family was represented by the conservative Catholic organisation Christian Lawyers, whose president, Polonia Castellanos, lamented the outcome and said the state had failed the young woman.
“Death is the last option, especially when you are very young,” she said, calling the case proof of the “failure” of the law, which came into force in 2021.
Spain approved euthanasia and medically assisted suicide for people with terminal illnesses or permanent and unbearable conditions in 2021, in a legal framework that requires medical evaluations and strict guarantees. Since it entered into force, more than 1 100 people have accessed this right, according to official data.
Before her death, Castillo defended her decision in the face of opposition from those around her.
“The happiness of a father or a mother should not come before the happiness of a daughter,” she said. Her death reignites a debate that brings together ethics, mental health and the limits of the right to decide.
Relief and justice
Around 17 000km away, reports The Guardian, there was less anger, more unanimous relief – and even cheers – outside the Brisbane supreme court after the dismissal of a murder charge against a woman who’d helped her terminally ill husband die.
Former firefighter David Mobbs (56) had been suffering from an aggressive form of motor neurone disease (MND), and his wife, Kylie Truswell-Mobbs (52), was looking at a potential life sentence after giving him a lethal cocktail of drugs in December 2023.
On Monday she pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to assisting suicide: Justice Tom Sullivan sentenced her to a suspended jail term after accepting she had acted out of a sense of compassion.
Sullivan had heard that Mobbs’ once‑strong and fit body had been rapidly paralysed by the degenerative effects of MND soon after being diagnosed in April 2023.
Within months, he went from independent to being entirely bedridden. He was unable to walk or move without assistance, the court heard.
Mobbs had a terminal diagnosis and was likely to be eligible for voluntary assisted dying under legislation activated in early 2023. But he had been told accessing it would take nine days or more, defence barrister Ruth O’Gorman told the court.
By 5 December 2023, he could no longer speak and was only communicating by blinking, making noises or using a letter board if someone lifted his hand.
Mobbs was also in pain and highly distressed due to losing the ability to use the toilet by himself.
“That night he begged to die,” O’Gorman said. “There was nothing secret about it. It was done with full knowledge of her sons and number of carers.”
He died on 6 December 2023.
Sullivan said it was a challenging sentence, due to a lack of similar cases and Truswell-Mobbs having already spent 14 months in custody.
She was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended immediately due to time served.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
DignitySA buoyed by NDPP’s decision
DignitySA launches legal challenge for assisted dying
ConCourt should shape legal position on right to die – DignitySA
Despite Catholic majority, Spain wins right to medically assisted death
Spain and Portugal should reconsider 'turning death into a medical treatment'