Assisted dying debate
JOBURG - Death is inevitable, but sometimes people have to cope with extreme pain, loss of dignity and the knowledge that things will only get worse as they reach their final days.
This issue was at the heart of Professor Nancy Duff’s presentation at the St Columba’s annual lecture in Parkview recently.
Duff, from the Princeton Theological Seminary in the United States, is an expert in the field of the ethics of assisted dying.
Duff shared that four American states have already legislated in favour of assisted dying and stringent guidelines are in place to ensure that proper procedures are followed:
- That at least two doctors confirm that a patient has less than six months to live
- That an ethics panel, of which Professor Duff is a member, reviews patients’ requests for assisted death on a case by case basis
- That in the case of a living will, that the patient’s wishes be granted.
She argued that assisted dying does not conflict with Christian ethics, as would be the case with suicide. “As this is not a view necessarily shared by other interest groups, the debate will continue,” she said.
In ending her lecture, she asked all those in attendance to compile a list of the potential consequences of an illness that one cannot live with. In doing so, she advised them to put it in a living will.
A living will is a written document that allows one to give instructions about medical treatment to be administered when one is terminally ill or permanently unconscious.
Assisted dying in South Africa is still illegal.
Reverend Doctor Chunky Young, a minister in the Parkview area, said that living wills could be drafted and copies should be made, one for the church, the family, one’s lawyer as well as the medical team.
“There is, however, a challenge in the case of a person who is in the hospital, because in terms of a doctor’s Hippocratic Oath he or she would not be able to assist with a patient’s final wish,” he said.
