‘We ought to give those who are to leave life … the terminally ill … the
same care and attention that we give those who enter life – the new-born.’1
In this article it is contended that terminally ill inmates have a right to
palliative care and that the State has a duty to fulfil this right. The number
of unsuccessful medical parole applications and recorded natural deaths of
inmates is considered as indicative of the problem of terminally ill inmates
in South African prisons. It is further contended that the State’s obligation
arises from an inmate’s constitutional right to health care and from an
increasingly recognised international human right to palliative care.