{South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled it is unlawful for patients with terminal illnesses to choose how they die.}<\/p>\n
Last year, a court allowed a terminally ill man the right to end his own life with the help of a doctor but he died before the ruling was made.<\/p>\n
The latest ruling overturns that decision.<\/p>\n
It means that Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s wish to have the option of an assisted death will now be illegal.<\/p>\n
Mr Tutu has been living with prostate cancer for nearly 20 years, reports Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and anti-apartheid campaigner said that he did “not wish to be kept alive at all costs”, in an editorial in the Washington Post newspaper on his 85th birthday.<\/p>\n
Tuesday’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruling overturns a High Court order which allowed Robin Stransham-Ford the right to die.<\/p>\n
Mr Stransham-Ford had terminal prostate cancer and died before the High Court ruled on his case, reports South Africa’s Eye Witness News.<\/p>\n
He had requested that the doctor who cared for him be protected from criminal sanction, losing his doctor’s licence or being sued, reported South Africa’s ENCA in April.<\/p>\n
The government argued in the appeal that the right to die can be abused and that there was no legal framework to regulate decisions in matters of life and death.<\/p>\n
The spokesman for the Department of Justice and Correctional Services, Mthunzi Mhaga, said the government is relieved with the Supreme Court of Appeal’s ruling.<\/p>\n
“Our argument has always been that the right to life is enshrined in our constitution – and equally doctors took an oath to save and preserve life, not to end it,” he told the BBC’s Milton Nkosi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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