South Africa faces renewed pressure to legalize assisted suicide

The non-profit organization DignitySA has launched a legal challenge hoping to decriminalize and legalize assisted dying in South Africa — a decision that pro-life advocates warn could erode the sanctity of life and debilitate the country’s moral landscape. 

Key Takeaways:

• A South African non-profit organization has launched an attempt to legalized assisted dying.

• The group claims people with "intolerable suffering" should be allowed to die with the government's enablement, and that the law against it should be declared unconstitutional.

• Currently, South African law classifies assisted suicide as murder.

The Details:

DignitySA mounted a major case in the North Gauteng High Court seeking to legalize medically assisted suicide in South Africa, arguing that people enduring intolerable suffering have a constitutional “right” to take their own lives. The application called for the ban on assisted suicide to be declared unconstitutional and struck down.

DignitySA defines assisted suicide as a medically facilitated death — either self-administered or committed by a physician — subject to restrictive eligibility requirements and comprehensive safeguards. Central to DignitySA’s case is its assertion that the Constitution upholds a right to assisted suicide when specific conditions are met. South African law currently classifies assisted suicide as an act of murder.

The respondents in the case include the ministers of Health and Justice and Constitutional Development, the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), and the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).

“We have a standoff," DignitySA co-founder Willem Landman said. "Our reigning law, our common law, says it’s murder. We believe our constitution says it is a right that we have in the appropriate circumstances and with the necessary safeguards in place. This contradiction needs to be resolved. We need the recognition of constitutional rights. We need more equal treatment. Some people die a gentle and easy death. Others, for no fault of their own, die a very difficult death, and we believe this is unjust."

Zoom In:

Dignity SA is requesting the court to force Parliament to pass laws regulating assisted suicide. This legislative process would need to take place within two years, while the declaration of invalidity remains suspended. 

Landman explained:

If the court declares medical assistance in dying as unlawful, and unconstitutional, and invalid, there will be a vacuum. The court cannot write a law that would govern, and manage, and control medical assistance in dying in South Africa with all the safeguards in place.So we ask the court to direct Parliament to write a law legalising medical assistance in dying within 24 months.

Reality Check:

Although DignitySA’s argument for assisted dying appeals to autonomy and relief from suffering, pro-life advocates regard the matter through an entirely different lens — one premised on the inherent dignity of every human life, regardless of health status or disability. 

Christian Views Network director Philip Rosenthal sounded the alarm about a lack of safeguards, cautioning the legal challenge by Dignity SA could give rose to a slippery slope for euthanasia on demand.

"Changing the definition of murder to some currently undefined subjective amount of suffering where the witness is gone would make it harder to prosecute the crime of murder," he said. "Hopefully, the Pretoria High Court will throw this case out."

One need look no further than Canada or the Netherlands to see how the "slippery slope" has come to fruition with regarding to MAiD. In Canada, there have been nearly 100,000 estimated MAiD deaths in less than a decade, and in the Netherlands, an autistic teenager was recently euthanized instead of receiving help for his mental health issues.

The Bottom Line:

South Africa is a country where its hospices remain underfunded and unevenly distributed, particularly in remote regions. Instead of promoting assisted suicide, the government should focus on widening compassionate end-of-life care and life-affirming pain management for the terminally ill.