They say doctors would not be allowed to encourage patients to end their lives. They should not be negligent, accidentally causing death, or have criminal intent or try to murder the patient.
Cape Town resident Robert Stransham-Ford, who had terminal cancer, in May 2015 asked the court urgently for assistance with his suicide, but died hours before the judgment was made allowing him such help.
In his judgment, Pretoria High Court Judge Hans Fabricius bemoaned how little parliament had done to deal with the law change. He said this forced courts to intervene in changing the law dealing with the issue that parliament had failed to address since the Law Reform Commission produced a paper on euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide in 1998.
The Supreme Court reversed his judgment and the precedent that it had set allowing terminally ill people to approach the courts to be given permission for euthanasia because Stransham-Ford was dead when the judgment was made.
Walter and Harck argue they are mentally competent and understand that palliative treatment can manage symptoms of illnesses, but still want to end their lives.
Because the trust is one of the plaintiffs it is hoped that if one of the ill plaintiffs dies during the court case, it can continue.
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