RESOURCES

Your rights regarding withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining care

If a user (defined in the National Health Act of 2003 as ‘a person receiving treatment in a health establishment, including blood or blood products, or using a health services’)  is unable to give informed consent and no person is mandated or authorised to give such consent, and the consent is given by the spouse or partner of the user or, in the absence of such spouse or partner, a parent, grandparent, an adult child or a brother or a sister of the user, in the specific order as listed.

NB: It is therefore clear in the law that mandated persons or next of kin are legally empowered to make medical decisions on a user’s behalf, and doctors must comply with your decisions about withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. Their preferences should be respected AS IF the patient is making their own decisions, and overriding the decisions of the mandated persons or next of kin is not ethically and legally permissible.

DignitySA encourages families to have proactive conversations about their end-of-life choices and to document their wishes in a template such as a living will. Ideally, a person whom the patient trusts is mandated in writing to make healthcare decisions for them should they be unable to, and this must be done in writing. A template for this can be found at advance directives templates (4.1.2), and once signed, this document and their wishes should be widely communicated and shared.

This is supported by the HPCSA’s Guidelines For The Withholding and Withdrawal of Treatment

https://www.hpcsa-blogs.co.za/guidelines-for-the-withholding-and-withdrawing-of-treatment/#9