TWO CHARGES AGAINST PRO-LIFE DOCTOR SET ASIDE

Doctors For Life International welcomes the progress made in defending Dr Jacques de Vos against the persecution he had to endure for advising that an unborn baby is a human being. Dr De Vos has been barred from continuing with his medical career for more than two years now and has been charged with unprofessional conduct by the HPCSA. His hearing has been delayed and rescheduled, and charges have been changed on more than one occasion. On 28 and 29 October 2019, Dr De Vos’ legal team argued among other things, that the delays render the hearing unfair and the charges are unlawful.

On 3 December 2019 the Disciplinary Committee made a ruling that counts 3 and 4 are set aside and that the hearing is to continue on counts 1 and 2 only. This means that the only charge now facing Dr De Vos is that he tried to convince a woman not to authorise a doctor to kill her healthy 19 week old unborn child.

Secondly, after some two years of linking their refusal to sign Dr De Vos off with the outstanding disciplinary proceedings, the Wynberg Military Hospital has now abandoned this position. (In this regard the Disciplinary Committee of the HPSCA in effect in its reasons delivered on Tuesday has confirmed this de-linking. Prior to this despite letters to the HPSCA requesting clarity on this, no response was forthcoming from the HPSCA.)

The hearing will continue on *9 December 2019* at the Southern Sun Hotel, Newlands, Cape Town. The parties will try and reach an agreement about the future conduct of this matter as regards to the single incident relating to the unborn child.

Dr De Vos, who is a member of Doctors For Life International (DFL) is supported by DFL and legal team (De Wet Wepener Attorneys and Adv Keith Matthee SC) on a pro bono basis.

For more information, please contact Martus De Wet at [email protected]