The South African cardiologist known by some as “Doctor Death” has been found guilty of professional misconduct for making chemical and biological weapons for the apartheid regime, going against all violating international medical ethics.

Wouter Basson’s role in apartheid’s bloodshed was “Project Coast,” a secret weapons program that he ran doing the 1980s and ‘90s, a program that was linked to kidnappings and murder.  He was already acquitted of criminal charges in a 2002 trial.  But this was an inquiry led by his peers in the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA).  And they said he acted unethically by providing disorientating substances for cross-border kidnappings, and by making cyanide capsules available for distribution to operatives for use in committing suicide.

“In the light of all the circumstances, the breaches amount to unprofessional conduct.  The respondent is guilty of unprofessional conduct,” HPCSA professional conduct committee chairman Professor Jannie Hugo said in Pretoria.

Basson claimed he was not guilty of ethical lapses because he was just following orders as a member of the military.  And besides, the people abused and murdered under his program weren’t officially “patients”.  But the Council said his Hippocratic Oath should have trumped that.

"During the 1980s, doctors in South Africa who remained true to their profession took a stance against military conscription,” said Hugo.  “They also refused to declare to the police the identities of patients in their care, exactly on ethical grounds."

72-year old Lizzy Sefulo’s husband and three others other anti-apartheid activists were drugged and tortured by security policemen in 1987.  Their bodies were blown up in the former homeland of Bophuthatswana.  Sefulo is satisfied with the Council’s verdict.

“He is evil.  I agree with the committee when they say as a doctor Basson was there to serve people, not kill them,” Sefulo said.

The HPCSA will rule in February whether Dr. Death gets to continue practicing medicine in South Africa.