Court rules that assisted suicide is unlawful
Government has won its appeal against a High Court order granting a terminally ill patient the right to die.
A 2015 Pretoria High Court judgement allowed assisted suicide proponent, Robin Stransham-Ford, the right to die with dignity.
But today's ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal makes doctor-assisted suicide unlawful.
Government has argued the right to die can be abused.
Justice ministry spokesperson, Mthunzi Mhaga, says the ruling comes as a relief.
"The Minister of Justice and the Minister of Health are relieved the judgement has been set aside, given the far-reaching implications it had on the constitutionally-entrenched right to life and the powers of the NPA to proffer chargers of murder or culpable homicide against those doctors who would have assisted patients."
He says doctors had taken an oath to save lives, not take lives.
Government has previously pointed out that no legal framework exists to regulate decisions of life and death.