SA's Archbishop Tutu asks for right to assisted death

By Shu’eib Hassen

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AA) – Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has asked for the right to an assisted death on Friday in a piece in the Washington Post.

"I hope I am treated with compassion and allowed to pass on to the next phase of life's journey in the manner of my choice," he wrote.

“I believe that terminally ill people should be treated with the same compassion and fairness when it comes to their deaths,” Tutu wrote in the U.S. daily. “I believe that, alongside the wonderful palliative care that exists, their choices should include a dignified assisted death.”

These past few months ,Tutu, who celebrated his 85th birthday on Friday, has been regularly in and out of the hospital for recurring infections due to prostate cancer.

He first argued in favor of an assisted death in 2014.

In April 2015, a South African court ruling allowed a terminally ill man to have the right to euthanasia, sparking debates across the country on laws on assisted death.

The conversation faded with no resolution but Tutu’s declarations may bring the conversation to the foreground once again.

While birthday wishes keep pouring in for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate from across the world, Tutu appears fervently determined to have legalize euthanasia before his death.

“Now more than ever, I feel compelled to lend my voice to this cause,” he said.