The South African voluntary euthanasia society (saves), the living will, and the “euthanasia controversy”, 1974-1994

Abstract

In January 1992, the South African Law Commission approved a proposal of the previous year by the South African Voluntary Euthanasia/the Living Will Society (SAVES) to undertake research into the legality of Living Wills. Drawing on archival and newspaper sources and medical journal publications, this article details the history of SAVES from its founding in 1974 to 1994, during which time there were concerted efforts by some South Africans, including members of SAVES, to bring about change regarding medical euthanasia through either the common law or by parliamentary enactment.
This history shows that some medical doctors andnurses were at the forefront of the campaigns for passive euthanasia. Sometimes, and against the official stance of SAVES and state and professional medical bodies, some were also vocal in support of active euthanasia. SAVES was unable to restrain debates about who might be the beneficiaries of passive euthanasia– especially the suffering elderly patient and those in a persistent vegetative state–which ensnared it in controversies with people and organisations who alleged that the outcomes would be the killing of others, in abortion,
and the killing of the vulnerable, the disabled, and neonates. While SAVES’ campaigns were conducted by and most successful amongst white South Africans, by the early 1990s, concern with medical euthanasia was also being taken up by politically progressive multiracial organisations, whose questions of social justice and apartheid inequities complicated their views on the issue.