Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Michael Masutha, says his department is opposing assisted suicide simply because no one under the constitution of South African has got a right to kill another person.
Speaking on Morning Live, Masutha was responding to North Gauteng High Court judgement that a doctor who helped or provided Cape Town resident Robin Stransham-Ford with deadly drugs would not face criminal sanction.
Sixty-five-year-old Stransham-Ford, who suffered from prostate cancer, lodged an application requesting the court to allow a doctor to commit assisted suicide or euthanasia.
However, Stransham-Ford died last week Thursday, shortly after the court ruled that a medical doctor who helped him die would not be prosecuted.
But Masutha disagreed, saying by assisting any person to kill themselves – one becomes party to murder.