Health Professions Council wants assisted suicide ruling overturned
The Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) wants the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to overturn a High court ruling allowing a doctor to help a terminally ill man to die. HPCSA advocate Henry van Bergen said High Court Judge Hans Fabricius’s ruling had no legal value because Cape Town advocate Robin Stransham-Ford — on whom the precedent-setting High Court case was based — died hours before the ruling. Van Bergen argues that there was insufficient evidence that Stransham-Ford wanted to die. According to medical records the HPCSA subpoenaed‚ Stransham-Ford expressed misgivings about going through with his quest in a conversation with his doctor. Van Bergen said it was common for terminally ill people to suffer from anxiety and depression and fluctuating decisions about whether they wanted choose when to die. For this reason a patient needed multiple assessments‚ according to HPCSA court papers citing psychologists and medical experts. Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) Judge Carol Lewis ...
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