Every person in South Africa deserves to be supported throughout lifeβs final journey with compassionate care, dignity and the freedom to choose their own path.
For most people, high-quality palliative care provides comfort, pain relief, and support that allows them to live meaningfully until their natural death. However, some individuals with terminal or irremediable conditions can face suffering that cannot be adequately relieved, even with the best medical care. Currently, their choices are severely limited by the law.
DignitySA advocates for:
Universal access to quality palliative care
Respect for patients' choices about withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments
Legal recognition of advance directives (living wills)
The option of medically assisted dying for informed adults with terminal or irremediable conditions when their suffering cannot be alleviated by an acceptable treatment option
We work toward these goals by:
Building public understanding about end-of-life rights and choices
Drafting a bill to provide a sound legal basis for advance directives
Preparing a legal challenge to establish the right to a medically assisted death alongside other end-of-life choices
Advocating for legal reforms that respect individual autonomy while protecting vulnerable people
They deserve humane choices - We all do.
OUR GOALS FOR 2025
DignitySA is approaching the High Court in Pretoria as an applicant seeking to have assisted dying decriminalised and legalised in South Africa.
Assisted dying is doctor-assisted suicide and doctor-administered euthanasia for patients suffering from a condition with no prospect of further beneficial treatment or palliative care, and whose suffering is intractable and unbearable.
DignitySA are preparing legal papers to ask the courts:
To declare the existing general common-law prohibition of assisted dying, which regards it as murder, unconstitutional and invalid (thus decriminalising assisted dying);
To require Parliament to write a law legalising and regulating assisted dying in a manner appropriate for South Africa.
DignitySA estimates that we would need about R4-5 million to cover all expenses relating to these proceedings until the matter is finally determined in the Constitutional Court. We are fortunate to have already received generous donations in the amount of R2.15 million.
Since 2011, DignitySA has advocated for the fundamental Freedom of choice in end-of-life options for all.
LATEST NEWS
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DignitySA is approaching the High Court in Pretoria in early 2024 as an applicant seeking to have assisted dying decriminalised and legalised in South Africa.
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Assisted dying is doctor-assisted suicide and doctor-administered euthanasia for patients suffering from a condition with no prospect of further beneficial treatment or palliative care, and whose suffering is intractable and unbearable.
DignitySA will seek the following relief:
To declare the exiting general common-law prohibition of assisted dying, which regards it as murder, unconstitutional and invalid (thus decriminalising assisted dying); and to require Parliament to write a law legalising and regulating assisted dying in a manner appropriate for South Africa
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In 2015 South African Medical Association (SAMA) Chairman, Dr Mzukisi Grootboom, (erroneously) said: βYou must remember, ethics takes precedence over the laws of the country. There are lots of countries that sent people to the gas chambers.β
Now listen to what SAMA Chairperson, Dr Angelique Coetzee, had to say on 1 May 2019.
An encouraging watch. Interview starts 2 minutes in.
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Carol de Swardt flies to Switzerland for medically assisted death.
Your stories
Do you have a story to share in support of our cause of your personal experience sufferering from a dread disease or as carer or family member.
