8
March 1999 -
MEDIA RELEASE
At the Doctors For Life hosted National Conference on Palliative Care and
Euthanasia, it was decided that the following urgent appeal would be made
to the South African Law Commission and the government:
- The present ban on active euthanasia should be kept
because any relaxation would be open to abuse, and could put pressure
on the old and the sick to seek early death.
- To distinguish between murder and "mercy killing"
would be to cross the line that prohibits any intentional killing, a
line that is essential to preserve. We are also concerned that vulnerable
people - the elderly, lonely, sick or distressed - would feel pressurised,
whether real or imagined, to request early death.
- We can back a patient’s right to refuse medical
treatment, but that is far removed from the right to request help to
die.
- In general, arguments in favour of euthanasia are insufficient
to weaken society’s prohibition of intentional killing. We look
upon that prohibition as the cornerstone of law and of social relationships.
It protects each one of us impartially, embodying the belief that all
are equal.
- We do not wish for protection to be diminished, and
we therefore recommend that there should be no change in the law to
permit active euthanasia.
- We do not believe that it is possible to set secure
limits on voluntary euthanasia. It would be next to impossible to ensure
that all acts of euthanasia were truly voluntary, and that any liberalisation
of the law was not abused.
- Moreover to create an exception to the general prohibition
of intentional killing would inevitably open the way to its further
erosion, whether by design, by inadvertence or by the human tendency
to test the limits of any regulation.
We would like draw attention to the fact that the American Medical Association,
the British Medical Association, the American Association of Psychiatric
and the American Nursing Association rejects physician assisted suicide.
DFL supports the South African Medical Association in their recommendation
of 5/3/99, that legislation on active euthanasia be put on hold.
DFL is an organisation of 600 plus medical doctors, specialists and professors
of medicine form different medical faculties across South Africa.
For more information contact: Dr M. Tindisa or Dr A. van Eeden: Tel: (031)
764-0443
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