Fifth South African Helped with Assisted Suicide in Switzerland

ZURICH – A Bloemfontein architect, Johann Beukes, died in Switzerland on Monday in an assisted suicide with the help of the local organisation Dignitas, according to news reports, which said he was the fifth South African to have used the Swiss group in a medically assisted death.

DignitySA, which advocates legalising medically assisted suicide in South Africa, said although several countries like the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as some American states, allow assisted suicide, Switzerland is the only country that lets foreigners do it there, under strict control.

Beukes, 66, suffered from a severely debilitating incurable disease that disintegrated the cartilage in his joints, DignitySA’s Sean Davison told OFM radio station.

Beukes, who had a travel agency called Sure Etnique Travel, did an interview with Maroela Media two weeks before he died about his decision to end his life, saying that he’d had 30 operations since 1961 and like the ripples created by a stone thrown on water the pain in his life was getting worse and worse.