Odd that South Africa has not legalised euthanasia

There is a Biblical saying about there being no greater love a person can have than that he or she lays their life down for another. But how much love does it take for you to actually assist someone to take their own life?

That’s a question for which Professor Sean Davison has an answer. The campaigner for the legalisation of euthanasia in South Africa was convicted of the premeditated murders of three people he helped to die.

He was released this week after serving three years of house arrest. He could not stand by, he said, while watching people “suffering unbearably with no hope of recovery, who were determined to die and they were incapable of ending their own lives”.

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It does seem odd that South Africa – which has one of the best constitutions in the world, especially when viewed from a protection of human rights perspective – has not legalised euthanasia.

Can there be any human right greater than that of a person’s ability to control their life? Surely if you remove this right, it would be unconstitutional?

More than that, though, how compassionate is it to allow a person to suffer, knowing there is a way out? Something for the government to consider…