Issued by: North West Communication Service
ADDRESS BY PREMIER POPO SIMON MOLEFE AT THE OPENING OF THE 11TH CONGRESS OF THE WORLD ASSOCIATION FOR MEDICAL LAW - SUN CITY - 29 JULY 1996
Chairperson, thank you very much for the generous and eloquent introduction.
Esteemed delegates, respected participant, friends
I am honoured to convey to you the personal greetings of the President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Nelson Mandela, and the good wishes of the entire Provincial Cabinet of the North West.
My own personal words of welcome go to those delegates and participants who have travelled long distances from all corners of the world to take part in this, The Eleventh World Congress on Medical Law.
I wish to express my personal pleasure and profound appreciation for being the one you have chosen as the patron of this Congress. I am gratified and at the same time humbled by this gesture of recognition.
We are pleased that, in recognition of the momentous changes that have taken place in our country, you have selected South Africa as the venue for this August meeting; the first time since the foundation of the Association in 1967.
After two years of achieving constitutional democracy, South Africans are engaged in a process of fundamental transformation that is aimed at entrenching human rights and defining the obligations of its citizens, both towards one another and vis-a-vis the Government.
This democratization process has seen various institutions of civil society being active participants in topical issues and demonstrating an unwavering commitment to the norms and standard that are the essential ingredients for a tolerant and cohesive, pluralistic and proud society.
Being a multi-cultural and multi-faith country, dynamic debate and strong views often characterize legislative and extra-parlia- mentary consultative forums, where puritanism competes with liberalism, religious tenets with atheism, modenity with tradition, conservatives against revolutionaries, all of which can only be to the common good and our new democracy.
In these debates, leading lights on Medical jurisprudence are making their mark through informed critical-thinking and well- reasoned arguments, shedding more light on diverse issues such as euthanasia, in vitro insemination, termination of pregnancy, insanity, traditional healing, unborn children, to name but a few.
As it often is the case with most developing countries who's economies are in a state of transition, our national resources are hard-pressed to provide adequate and timeous universal access to health care, especially to historically disadvantaged groups such as women, children and rural communities. As a result of the inequal- ities bequeathed on the new government by the old, it is generally difficult for a broad section of the population to enjoy their right to have access to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health facilities, a vital prerequisite for the ability to participate meaningfully in all areas of public and private life.
Most lawyers and criminologists would certainly testify that the legacy of unequal provision of life support systems manifests itself clearly and often when courts of law are confronted with the unen- viable tasks of passing an appropriate sentence on a convicted person whose blameworthy state of mind appears to have been influenced by living in sub-economic conditions.
If the purpose of sentence is to determine would-be offenders, how is the sentence going to achieve the intended purpose when a large part of the population lives in an environment that is conducive to the commission of crimes such as illegal abortion, abuse of dependence - producing substances, drunken driving and such crimes?
Equally, is euthanasia that reprehensible where a mother ends the life of a new-born bay who has no hope of a normal life in an environment of deprivation, squalor and disease, where infant mortality is in any case unacceptably high?
Chairperson, these matters have been the subject of debate in the past, they are going to engage our judges, doctors, theologians, moralists and health care workers for a long time to come, as indeed they form part and parcel of the discussions in this Congress.
My brief is not to engage you in debate, but to welcome you to the North West Province of South Africa. I am honoured to declare this Congress officially open. I wish you success in your deliberations.
Thank you