PARLIAMENT should give "serious consideration" to introducing a draft law legalising euthanasia.In a written judgment explaining his reasons for allowing Robin Stransham-Ford to have the assistance of a doctor to help him die, Pretoria High Court Judge Hans Fabricius suggested the bill presented for debate be based on the Law Reform Commission report on assisted suicide and viewed through the lens of the Constitution’s Bill of Rights.But Judge Fabricius conceded he could not tell the government what to do.In 1998, then president Nelson Mandela asked the Law Reform Commission to research "assisted suicide and the artificial preservation of life". It did extensive work on the issue and found in favour of assisted suicide and wrote a draft bill to legalise it.The bill was submitted to then health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in 1999, but nothing further happened.Judge Fabricius said had Stransham-Ford’s application for assisted suicide not been so urgent due to his impending death...
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