Executive Committee Member, Sean Davison, says the organisation is optimistic that medical assisted deaths will be legalised in South Africa within the next two years.

He says Bloemfontein businessman, Johann Beukes, who died in Zurich, Switzerland, yesterday with the assistance of the organisation Dignitas, made the right decision. Beukes’s joints disintegrated at an unpredictable rate and since his childhood he underwent more than 30 operations. He was in tremendous pain.

Davison says DignitySA is hopeful for a change of law in South Africa after a Pretoria High Court order was granted in April this year, allowing Robin Stransham-Ford, a terminally ill cancer sufferer, to commit suicide with the assistance of a doctor.

Davison says the ruling has set a president in South Africa which hopefully will allow others the same ruling.

Davison says once medical assisted deaths are legalised in South Africa various safeguards will be put in place to ensure the law will not be abused. An independent panel will also be responsible to asses requests and decide if people are mentally capable.

Christal-Lize Muller/OFM News