The Archbishop Desmond Tutu has recently voiced his support for the withdrawal of life-sustaining medical treatment and discussed the controversial issue of the right to die.
He said, “A dignified death is our right.”
This is what anyone could put in writing in a document called a living will, which is not a last will and testament, it is a separate document.
A living will basically sets out what a person’s wishes are should they ever be in a situation where they cannot survive without permanent medical support. Usually, the person would ask to be allowed to die if there was no reasonable prospect of recovery.
There is no law providing for the validity of a living will, and no doctor or family member is bound by it, but it does have a persuasive effect.
Last year, an advocate called Stransham-Ford was suffering from terminal cancer and had only a few weeks to live. He suffered extreme pain during his last months, and so brought an urgent application to ask the court to allow a doctor to end his life, and for the doctor to do so lawfully and without fear of criminal, civil or disciplinary liability.
He argued that the court needed to give effect to his right to human dignity, not to be treated inhumanely, and physical integrity.
The court granted the application, saying that no medical doctor would be obliged to do it, but if there was a doctor who would be prepared to end his life, they would be allowed to do so. That doctor would not be subject to prosecution. Coincidentally, Stransham-Ford passed away on the very day the judgment was given.
At present, assisted death is a criminal offence. The judge said that this is an area of law that should be developed in the Constitutional Court. Sadly, the applicant passed away before this matter could be discussed by the judges of that highest court of our land.
