Windhoek
A local human rights lawyer says it is unlikely Namibians who are terminally ill will start approaching the courts because they want doctors to assist them commit suicide, as was the case in South Africa.
A terminally ill man was recently granted the right to end his life in South Africa, where euthanasia, or assisted suicide, is illegal.
Media reports from that country indicated a South African national Robin Stransham-Ford, 65, who lived in Cape Town lodged an application requesting the court to allow a doctor to assist him commit suicide.
He died last Thursday shortly before a judge ruled in his favour.
Media cited rights group DignitySA who supported the court bid and picketed outside the courthouse in the capital Pretoria. Stransham-Ford only had weeks to live and had prostate cancer.
The medication used to manage his pain left him constantly sedated, the group said.
Stransham-Ford wanted to end his life with dignity, surrounded by his loved ones, while he was able to breathe on his own, speak to his loved ones and could see and hear them.
Sharen Zenda a human rights lawyer in the HURICON department at the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) said: “Having similar legal systems does not mean that our courts will be inclined to follow the same route as was taken by the South African courts. Often our courts have taken different approaches to South African courts on matters that might appear similar. As far as Namibian law is concerned assisted suicide is a crime.”
Zenda added: “There have been cases where family members have attempted to end lives of their loved ones who were terminally ill but none has been decided by our courts yet. We really do not know the outcome of such a case if it were to come before our courts as all cases differ based on their circumstances.”
In April 2002, the Netherlands became the first country to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide.
In the United States, doctors are allowed to prescribe lethal doses of medicine to terminally ill patients in five states.
In Germany and Switzerland, active assisted suicide – i.e. a doctor prescribing and handing over a lethal drug – is illegal. But German and Swiss law does allow assisted suicide within certain circumstances.
In Germany, assisted suicide is legal as long as the lethal drug is taken without any help, such as someone guiding or supporting the patient’s hand.
Belgium passed a law in 2002 legalising euthanasia, becoming the second country in the world to do so.