Dear Portfolio Committee on Health,

I should like to add my support to the draft bill being presented to parliament by MP Deidre Carter. I am probably one of relatively few people who have completed and signed an Advance Directive regarding my health care and have appointed a Medical Proxy. I believe there are a huge number of South Africans who would want to take similar action for themselves, but have not done so because it seems too hard to do; and because the legal validity appears to be questionable. I strongly support this draft bill because it would provide legal clarity and give such Advance Directives the protection they need so that the Medical Proxies can actually carry out the instructions and actions with which they have been entrusted and not be over-ruled by objections that the Advance Directive has no legal standing.

I would emphasise that this draft bill, and my submission of support, is NOT about euthanasia or assisted dying but has a much more circumscribed scope, and is about giving legal weight to some wording in Advance Directives, such as "I wish to receive only such care that will keep me comfortable and pain free, until such time as my death occurs" and "I refuse specific artificial life-support therapies such as electrical, mechanical or other artificial stimulation of the heart", "artificial support with breathing, for example by ventilatory support" and "artificial feeding if I am unable to swallow".

I believe this draft bill would provide legal clarity and protection to an aspect of the constitutional rights of all citizens of South Africa, and would enable us to ensure that our deaths take their natural course. I would appeal to you, as the members of the Portfolio Committee on Health, to apply your minds with care and empathy to your consideration of this draft bill (and to my message of support for it}. If it were enacted, it could have incalculable benefit to some individuals in their final days of life on earth.