Our lives, our choices
Choice, dignity and care at the end of life
DignitySA advocates for the full range of end-of-life choice in South Africa: comprehensive palliative care, the right to refuse unwanted treatment, advance directives, and a safeguarded framework for medical assistance in dying.
A South Africa where every person is supported through life’s final journey
DignitySA works for compassionate care, dignity and the freedom for each person to choose their own path at the end of life.
We work with legal experts, healthcare professionals, policymakers and communities, using legislative engagement, public education and legal action, so every South African can access the full range of end-of-life care, from quality palliative care to informed choices about their own dying.
A public-interest case for medical assistance in dying
On 9 April 2026, DignitySA lodged its application in the North Gauteng High Court, asking the court to declare the blanket common-law prohibition on medical assistance in dying unconstitutional. The application concerns competent, informed people with a terminal or irremediable condition whose suffering is unbearable.
The case asks Parliament to be given 24 months to bring the law into line with the Constitution and to craft legislation appropriate for South Africa.
Four areas of DignitySA’s work
The full spectrum of end-of-life choice that everyone in South Africa deserves.
Palliative Care
Comprehensive symptom and family support that should be available early in serious illness, not only at the end.
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Life Support Decisions
The legal right to refuse, withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment, and clarity on who can speak for a patient who cannot.
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Advance Directives
Recording your future healthcare wishes through a living will and a Section 7 Mandate so they can be honoured.
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Medical Assistance in Dying
A constitutional case for a compassionate, carefully safeguarded legal framework for people whose suffering cannot be relieved.
Learn moreFifteen years of work
Since 2011, DignitySA has worked across law, medicine and public conversation to make sure South Africans can live, and die, with dignity. The constitutional challenge is one chapter in a longer story.
Read our journeyWhat we are working on now
The campaigns and legal work shaping end-of-life rights in South Africa today.
Constitutional Challenge: MAiD
DignitySA has lodged its High Court application for a compassionate, safeguarded MAiD framework in South Africa.
Learn more 2025Advance Directives
A public-facing programme to make South Africans’ end-of-life wishes legally durable, alongside a coalition to strengthen the legal framework.
Learn more OngoingPalliative Care Access
Education and advocacy to expand access to comprehensive palliative care across all South African communities.
Learn moreHelp us reach our goal
DignitySA relies on individual donations. Every rand brings us closer to securing end-of-life rights for all South Africans.
Donate to the legal fundFour ways to stand with DignitySA
The work is carried by everyone who joins, donates, signs and shares.
Become a member
Free membership gives you the newsletter, invitations to events, and a voice at the AGM.
Join usDonate to the legal fund
Your contribution directly funds the constitutional challenge, advocacy and education work.
Donate nowSign the petition
Add your name to the call to urgently decriminalise medical assistance in dying in South Africa.
Sign the petitionShare your story
Patient and family narratives are powerful. Your experience can help change hearts, minds and laws.
Tell your storyLatest posts
Lynne’s Story
DignitySA Director Lynne Grubb traces a life lived at the edges of other people’s dying, two parents, a young husband, and now her partner Dieter Harck, and why she believes the choice at the end must belong to the person living it.
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Leigh’s Story
This Women’s Month, Operations Manager Leigh Meinert opens our series of stories from the women behind DignitySA, describing how two profound losses, decades apart, shaped her passion for end-of-life care and the right to dignity.
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Exiting The Story of Our Lives on Our Own Terms
Professor Leon van Vuuren reflects on three people with Motor Neurone Disease, and what their very different deaths taught him about dignity, choice and the case for medical assistance in dying.
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A member of the World Federation
DignitySA is a member of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, an international network of organisations working to advance choice and dignity at the end of life.
Visit the World Federation