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'What did he do wrong?'
25/11/2006 07:46 - (SA)
Jeanne-Marié Versluis, Beeld
Bloemfontein - Dr Leon Wagner, the former chief state pathologist in the Free State who has appeared before a disciplinary hearing because he wrote Aids as cause
of death on the death certificate of a young woman, is positive he will be acquitted by the Health Professions Council (HPC).
Wagner, now in private practice, said on Friday after the first day of his hearing by the professional ethics committee of the council: "I have no doubt that I will be acquitted".
He said it was astounding that the stigma attached to Aids was still so strong "that one may not even state on a death certificate that someone had died as a result of Aids".
"Should it become general practice to write on a death certificate that someone had died because of Aids it would indicate that South African society has taken a turn for greater maturity in its handling of the disease."
Confident
Johann Engelbrecht SC of Pretoria was acting on behalf of Wagner and Dr Herman Reinach, a Bloemfontein orthodontist, was committee chairman.
Wagner has not yet entered a plea.
The indictment said he was guilty of unprofessional behaviour because he and/or his practice had last year entered Aids on the death certificate of Elsie Nontsisi without proper evidence or examination of her body.
This made the cause of death illegally and/or unjustly certified as Aids, it was alleged.
In a request to the committee, the defence asked for more details to establish on what grounds it was alleged that Wagner had acted unprofessionally.
The defence also wanted to know whether Lulamile Peter, the pro-forma prosecutor, was alleging that no evidence existed to confirm the cause of death and, if Peter was not depending on that, whether he alleged that Wagner did not perform a proper examination of the body.
'Action was unprofessional'
Engelbrecht said on Friday that until finality had been reached on certain aspects, Wagner was "not in a position to enter a plea".
Engelbrecht played a digital recording of the pre-trial proceedings between the parties, held Wednesday, for the committee.
In these proceedings, the defence alleged that the indictment did not comply with the provisions of the constitution or the Criminal Procedure Act.
Gerhard Wagenaar, Wagner's attorney, said at the meeting: "We do not know what he transgressed. What rule/regulation/act did he violate?"
To this Peter replied: "There is no direct act, rule or regulation that says so, but it is part of what is expected by his profession, by his peers."
Peter said on Friday that Wagner had entered Aids without a proper examination of the body and that such an action was unprofessional in terms of the act governing health professions.
- Beeld
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