First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
In a landmark case two terminally ill patients have asked the South Gauteng High Court to rule that professional rules and laws that bar physicians from helping their patients end their lives are unconstitutional and that Parliament should write a new law that would give them the right to die.
Fighting for the right to die, a doctor and a patient, both terminally ill, were expected to start giving evidence in the High Court in Johannesburg this week as they ask for major legislative reform and for rules barring doctors from helping patients to end their lives to be scrapped.
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Court to decide on euthanasia and right to die in South Africa
GroundUp14 February 2021
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An atheist advocate and doctor have added their voices to a crucial legal challenge to determine whether or not euthanasia should be legalised in South Africa.
The last time the issue was raised in court in South Africa was in 2015 when lawyer Robert Stransham-Ford, who was dying, launched an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court for an order that a doctor be legally entitled to give him a lethal dose to end his life.
It was an individual application, not done in the public interest. Judge Hans Fabricius ruled in his favour, but unbeknown to the judge, Stansham-Ford died, naturally, two hours before the judgment.
A medical doctor and her patient, both of whom have terminal diseases, are leading the latest legal battle for physician-assisted suicide to be legalised.