SC allows passive euthanasia
new delhi — Individuals have a right to die with dignity, India’s Supreme Court said on Friday in a landmark verdict that permits the removal of life-support systems for the terminally ill or those in incurable comas.
Passive euthanasia, as it is called, will apply only to a terminally ill person with no hope of recovery, a panel of five judges said. Active euthanasia, by administering a lethal injection, continues to be illegal in India.
The court said terminally ill patients have the right to refuse care, approving the use of “living wills” to set out how they want to be treated.
The ruling means the family of someone in a permanent vegetative state and unable to communicate could withdraw life support in accordance with the patient’s wishes.
The bench, also including judges A.K. Sikri, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, laid down guidelines on who would execute the will and how the nod for passive euthanasia would be granted by the medical board.
The justices gave the green light to living wills, legal documents that allow adults to express their preference on how they want to be treated if they become terminally ill or slip into an incurable coma.
It enshrines the right to refuse care, although under strictly controlled conditions. “Life sans dignity is an unacceptable defeat and life that meets death with dignity is a value to be aspired for and a moment for celebration,” the fivejudge bench, headed by India’s chief justice, said in its order.
“The question that arises is should he not be allowed to cross the doors of life and enter, painlessly and with dignity, into the dark tunnel of death whereafter it is said that there is resplendence.”
The court said its guidelines set out “will prevail until the government comes out with legislation”.
The Press Trust of India news agency said that in each living will, a court-appointed medical panel will review the instructions before they can be carried out.
The 2015 death of 66-year-old nurse Aruna Shanbaug, who was raped and left in a vegetative state for 42 years, reignited India’s national debate over euthanasia.
Her plight prompted the Supreme Court to decide in 2011 that life support can be removed for some terminally ill patients in certain circumstances.
“It is an important, historic decision,” Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer and one of the petitioners, told reporters after the hearing.
With the latest decision, India joins a growing list of countries including Britain, France, Germany and Spain that recognise living wills.
Indian law does not permit active euthanasia or assisted suicide, in which patients are helped by doctors to end their lives. — Reuters,
Should we not allow them to cross the door and meet death with dignity? For some, even their death could be a moment of celebration. The Supreme Court
Everybody will breathe a sigh of relief, because people were earlier apprehensive that if they withdrew life support, they could be prosecuted for culpable homicide. Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer
though I am no stranger to pain, what I saw in this person took pain and suffering to another level, I realised that there comes a point in every life when a full stop is the only solution. Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who tackled euthanesia in his film Guzaarish