title: Doctors can kill--active euthanasia in South Africa.
abstract: Medical practitioners in South Africa will be given the legal right to end the lives of terminally ill patients. This is the practice of active euthanasia, the procedure whereby a medical doctor or a professional nurse can end the life of a terminally ill patient at the patient's request, by providing or administering a lethal dosage of a drug. Voluntary active euthanasia is included in a Draft Bill--The End of Life Decisions Act--which form part of a report of the South African Law Commission, wherein regulations regarding the end-of-life decisions are formulated. Specifically, it provides that a medical practitioner may under certain conditions stop the treatment of a patient whose life functions are being maintained artificially. Further, that a competent person may refuse life-sustaining treatment if he chooses to die. A medical practitioner may also give effect to a patient's living will in which the patient has requested the cessation of treatment. The Act also provides for the options of active voluntary euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide.
authors: Department of Criminal and Medical Law, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
authors: Hennie
authors: H
authors: Oosthuizen
mesh_terms: D003657:Decision Making; D028601:Euthanasia, Active / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D016224:Living Wills / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D009726:Nurses / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D010820:Physicians / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D012297:Right to Die / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D013019:South Africa; D017236:Suicide, Assisted / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D028761:Withholding Treatment