The bounds of compassion? Medical ethics and the politics of medical mercy killings in South Africa, 1930s to 1976

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dc.contributor.author Parle, Julie
dc.date.accessioned 2023-07-12T05:31:11Z
dc.date.issued 2022
dc.description.abstract The 1975 trial of Dr Alby Hartman for the killing of his father, in September the previous year at the small hospital at Ceres just over 100 kms from Cape Town, galvanised South African debates about medical euthanasia. After the trial, the obligations and duties of doctors faced with extreme suffering, profound disability, or inevitable death were widely discussed. The first study of medical mercy killings in South Africa, this article provides context, from the 1930s to the 1970s, for the Hartman trial and its controversial sentence. I consider why Dr Hartman admitted to ending his father's life, but also entered the plea of not guilty to murder. ‘Compassion was my motive’, he said. Several complexities of compassion and medical ethics in South Africa before 1976 are explored through attention to the role of Dr Guy A. Elliott. Through attention to South African medical politics under apartheid, I explain the contradictory positions on censuring Dr Hartman taken in 1976 by the South African Medical and Dental Council (SAMDC). Finally, I point to how the sentence passed on Dr Hartman – which made him a criminal ‘non-law’- has had a complex legacy for the issue of doctor-assisted dying in South Africa. en_US
dc.description.department Historical and Heritage Studies en_US
dc.description.embargo 2024-05-17
dc.description.librarian gl2023 en_US
dc.description.uri https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rshj20 en_US
dc.identifier.citation Julie Parle (2022) The Bounds of Compassion? Medical Ethics and the Politics of Medical Mercy Killings in South Africa, 1930s to 1976, South African Historical Journal, 74:2, 272-307, DOI: 10.1080/02582473.2022.2136740. en_US
dc.identifier.issn 0258-2473 (print)
dc.identifier.issn 1726-1686 (online)
dc.identifier.other 10.1080/02582473.2022.2136740
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/91359
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher Routledge en_US
dc.rights © 2022 Southern African Historical Society. This is an electronic version of an article published in South African Historical Journal, vol. 74, no. 2, pp. 272-307, 2022. doi : 10.1080/02582473.2022.2136740. South African Historical Journal is available online at : http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rshj20. en_US
dc.subject Compassion en_US
dc.subject Doctors en_US
dc.subject Medical ethics en_US
dc.subject Euthanasia en_US
dc.subject Dying en_US
dc.subject Doctor/physician-assisted death en_US
dc.subject Mercy killing en_US
dc.subject State vs Hartmann en_US
dc.subject South African Medical and Dental Council (SAMDC) en_US
dc.subject Medical authority en_US
dc.title The bounds of compassion? Medical ethics and the politics of medical mercy killings in South Africa, 1930s to 1976 en_US
dc.type Postprint Article en_US


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