METRO FM Talk with Faith Mangope

The Right to Die: Should South Africa Legalise Assisted Dying?

Various groups are still pushing for South African laws to be changed, to allow terminally ill adults the option of a dignified assisted death.

Non-profit organisation, Dignity South Africa, is planning to approach the courts to challenge the matter.

How To Die Podcast Host and End-Of-Life Carer Sean O’Connor and Dignity SA executive member Joseph Raimondo say South Africans must have these conversations.

A Cancer Patient Chose Assisted Death. That Wasn’t the Last Hard Choice.

Tatiana Andia knew Colombia would permit her a medically assisted death. She took her country with her on the journey to dying.

𝐁𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝

For many of us with degenerative illnesses like Parkinson’s, MND, ALS, or advanced cancer, the worst suffering isn’t always physical pain. Medicine can dull pain. It cannot dull the terror of watching yourself disappear piece by piece.

Bad deaths scar families for ever

For patients like Maddie Cowey, who was 18 when she was diagnosed with incurable cancer, the stakes of the debate couldn’t be higher. Photographer Alicia Canter spent four months capturing people facing the end, and bereaved relatives desperate to see the law change – even if it will be too late for some.

Sapiens are sentient, relational beings.

We feel, we imagine, we fear, we hope, and we deeply care how we are seen when our bodies fail us. Loss of physical function may be inevitable; loss of agency and the forced endurance of meaningless suffering need not be. It is an unbelievably self-serving view that terminal humans should be thankful for suffering up to the point where their organs are failing “naturally” to create an opportunity to teach humanity lessons in grief, humility, and gratitude.