Criminal Law Code as at 1st March 2007
(2) The High Court may, on application, order that a person be removed from a heart-lung
or ventilator machine or other life-support system, if the court is satisfied, from the evidence of
at least one medical practitioner, other than any medical practitioner who has been treating the
person, that⎯
(a) the person is unconscious and there is no reasonable prospect of his or her regaining
consciousness; and
(b) although the person’s brain functions may not have entirely ceased, his or her life is
being artificially sustained by the machine or system and there is no reasonable
prospect that he or she will ever be able to survive without being on the machine or
system.
(3) An application in terms of subsection (2) may be made⎯
(a) by a spouse, brother, sister, parent, guardian, curator or tutor of the person referred to
in subsection (2); or
(b) by the person in charge of the hospital or other institution in which the person referred
to in subsection (2) is being kept.
(4) In an application in terms of subsection (2), the court⎯
(a) may appoint a curator ad litem to represent the interests of the person referred to in
subsection (2); and
(b) shall ensure that, where practicable, every person who has an interest in the matter has
been given notice of the application and has been afforded a reasonable opportunity of
being heard therein.
(5) No criminal liability shall attach to⎯
(a) any person who terminates the life of another person pursuant to an order under
subsection (2); or
(b) an applicant referred to in subsection (3); or
(c) the curator ad litem referred to in subsection (4).
(6) An order granted in terms of subsection (2) shall cease to be valid after eighteen months
have elapsed from the date on which it was granted.
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Killing while disposing of victim’s body
(1) If any person⎯
(a) does or omits to do any thing in relation to another person which, if it caused that other
person’s death, would constitute murder or infanticide; and
(b) thinking that by such conduct he or she has killed the other person, disposes or
attempts to dispose of the other person’s body;
he or she shall be guilty of murder or infanticide, as the case may be, if, when he or she engages
in the disposal, the other person is not dead but dies as a result of the disposal or attempted
disposal.
(2) Subsection (1) shall apply whether the person concerned formed the intention to
dispose of the other person's body before, during or after he or she does or omits to do the thing
referred to in paragraph (a) of that subsection.
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