EDITORIAL: Let’s talk about assisted dying
There has been little public discourse on this sensitive issue in SA
There were more 540,000 deaths in SA last year, according to the Medical Research Council. We can be sure many of these people had neither a pain-free nor a dignified death. Palliative care services are in desperately short supply, as there is meagre local support and international funding has dwindled. The Association for Palliative Care Centres estimating only about 15% of the need is met.
Irrespective of their access to palliative care, no patient in SA can be legally aided by a doctor to hasten their death when life becomes intolerable. There has been little public discourse on this sensitive issue since 2016 when the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned a high court ruling upholding terminally ill Robin Stransham-Ford’s application to safeguard a doctor from criminal prosecution or professional sanction for helping him end his life...
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