MAiD in SA: Our Healthcare System & Safeguards
It is a myth that South Africa’s healthcare system cannot handle MAiD.
Life-and-death decisions are already made routinely and responsibly throughout SA’s healthcare system and we are able to manage far more complex medical interventions, like organ transplantation. The local evidence that we gathered in support of our constitutional challenge addresses this myth conclusively and can be found at dignitysouthafrica.org/assisted-dying.
Furthermore the evidence that we submitted, which draws from across four continents, demonstrates that the so-called “slippery slope” towards uncontrolled, runaway expansion of MAiD does not exist. In all jurisdictions where MAiD has been extended more progressively, to include minors or mental illnesses, it has been a controlled, rational legal process.
The claim that South Africa is somehow “different” since international experience and data don’t apply to us, also has no merit. Our healthcare infrastructure and medical professionals meet the best international standards. Yes, we have huge inequalities, but a phased introduction of MAiD would address access inequality concerns.
DignitySA recommends a cautious, phased approach, with designated institutions in both the public and private healthcare sectors offering MAiD. Institutionalising MAiD in a responsible and accountable practice will require Parliament to decide upon:
- Eligibility criteria determine who qualifies; and
- Internationally proven safeguards protect vulnerable patients against abuse.
Safeguards will minimise the risk of abuse of vulnerable individuals. Thus, for example, two doctors will have to submit independent assessments (of competence; processing information; informed consent; freedom of choice, etc.), the patient will need to ask for MAiD more than once and will have several opportunities to opt out.
In South Africa we do not abolish social practices because they may be abused, we improve our controls. Banning a practice that some fear might be abused is holding people with real suffering to ransom.
The alternative is worse because it holds the few ransom to the many by saying “no-one can have MAiD unless all can have it equally”. Nowhere in our society do we live by such a standard. Rather we work towards greater equality of the conditions of human flourishing.
You can join us by signing up as a member of DignitySA and signing our petition to decriminalise MAiD in SA. Please visit our website for more.