Catholic News 2

Pretoria, South Africa, Dec 9, 2016 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- While countries around the world such as Canada, Germany and Japan have passed legislation to legalize physician assisted suicide, one has ruled to reject it: South Africa.

The country's Supreme Court of Appeals overturned a high court ruling on Tuesday that would have allowed Robin Stransham-Ford, a 65-year-old retiree who had prostate cancer, to kill himself with the help of a doctor.

“A court addressing these issues needs to be aware of differing cultural values and attitudes within our diverse population,” the Supreme Court stated, according to the Daily Mail.

In addition, the court noted that in Stransham-Ford's case, the high court made their ruling on an “incorrect and restricted factual basis,” and that there was “no full and proper examination of the present state of our law in this difficult area.”

In 2015, the Pretoria High Court ruled that Stransham-Ford could end his life with medical assistance, stating he was living with unbearable pain. The ruling would have paved the way for assisted suicide legislation within the country.

However, before the court officially granted the order, Stransham-Ford had died. The government brought his case to the attention of the Supreme Court of Appeals, which officially overturned the pro-assisted suicide ruling on Tuesday.

Some euthanasia advocates, such as Dignity SA, expressed outrage in the new ruling, calling physician assisted suicide “a human rights issue.” The pro-assisted suicide organization voiced its disappointment, and said they might take the case to the country's constitutional court.

Retired Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa also voiced his support of physician assisted suicide, saying that he would “not wish to be kept alive at all costs.”

However, Justice Minister Michael Masutha expressed relief over the court’s decision, especially as it pertains to the country’s constitution.

“We are relieved that the SCA correctly stated the law as this decision could have far reaching implications on the constitutionally entrenched right to life and our common law crimes of murder and culpable homicide,” Justice Masutha said.

Among the reasons the Court of Appeals ruled against physician-assisted suicide was the chance that the acceptance of voluntary euthanasia would lead to eventual abuse and could overflow into far-reaching cases.

While physician-assisted suicide currently remains illegal in South Africa, the issue is gaining traction in other parts of the world. A handful of states in the U.S. have passed pro-euthanasia legislations over the past few years, while other countries – such as the Netherlands and Belgium – have accepted the practice since 2002.  

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Caracas, Venezuela, Dec 9, 2016 / 12:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Venezuelan bishops' justice and peace commission on Tuesday repudiated the murders of 12 young men by an operation of the Liberation of the People, a government security team meant to combat crime and homicide.

The bodies of 12 youths were found in a mass grave in Barlovento, in Miranda state, Nov. 28. They had been missing since Oct. 15 after they were picked up by members of the Liberation of the People, created in July 2015 by President Nicolás Maduro and composed of police and government agents.

However, the human rights NGO Provea reported that since its inception, the Liberation of the People have been involved in more than 750 extrajudicial deaths.

The Venezuelan bishops Dec. 6 expressed their “profound sorrow over the events in the Barlovento region” and pointed out that these were “punishable acts.”

The bishops disowned the “indiscriminate” way the Liberation of the People operates and that “the government authorities have not fulfilled their duty to prevent the violation of human rights” that have been committed “throughout the entire country.”

They also criticized the “haughty and deaf attitude of the government authorities” who “refuse to abide by international jurisprudence” as well as the recommendations of NGOs “to respect and guarantee human rights”. They likewise denounced the “bellicose, aggressive, and discriminatory language” that justifies the denial of human dignity “and legitimizes the ongoing use of violence as a means to solve the problems that are affecting society.”

They therefore urged the public authorities to put “into actual effect the laws and regulations developed by the Inter-American Convention on the Forced Disappearance of Persons and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.”

They also encouraged Catholics and people of good will to be “defenders and cultivators of human life in all its stages; not participating in or collaborating in actions that attack the right to life, thus fulfilling their duty as Christians and citizens that build and work for peace” as well as “rejecting all language” that legitimizes “violence and the counterculture of death.”

Finally, they expressed their solidarity “with the relatives of the 12 murdered youths, for whom we persistently pray to God, that he may give them strength and consolation in these painful moments and that he would allow swift and effective justice, that leaves no room for impunity.”

The Public Ministry reported Dec. 7 that they will charge Major Luis Eduardo Romero Arcia and Captain Daniel Contreras Primera, both of the Venezuelan Army, for alleged responsibility for the torture and subsequent death of the 12 persons.

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