In a landmark judgement today, the Supreme Court recognised that a terminally-ill patient can write a 'living will' that permits doctors to withdraw life support, saying a person with no will to live shouldn't suffer in a comatose state.
By permitting passive Euthanasia and 'living will' of a terminally ill patient, the five-judge constitution bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra reflected on its 2011 precedent when it permitted doctors of a Mumbai hospital to stop force-feeding sexual assault victim Aruna Shanbaug who remained in a Persistent Vegetative State for four decades.
Aruna Shanbaug Case And The Right To Die
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Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse at the KEM hospital, was assaulted, tied with a dog chain, and raped in the hospital basement on November 27, 1973. Shanbaug suffered brain stem and cervical cord injury and lay in a Persistent Vegitative State (PVS) for the rest of her life.
In 2009, journalist-Activist Pinky Virani, filed a writ petition under Article 32 before the Supreme Court of India, seeking passive euthanasia for Shanbaug, who, she said, had died on "November 27, 1973".
The hospital staff who had been heeding to Shanbaug, and the Bombay Municipal Corporation filed their counter-petitions, in opposition to the passive euthanasia appeal.
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In a landmark judgement in 2011, the Supreme Court had allowed doctors at the KEM Hospital to stop force-feeding Shanbaug and withdraw life support to deliberately end her life, on the discretion of the doctors. Shanbaug died four years later in 2015 after being diagnosed with pneumonia.
In India, Passive Euthanasia Is Legal. Active Euthanasia Is Not
The Supreme Court has made a distinction between Active and Passive Euthanasia. While passive euthanasia, described by the Supreme Court as 'withdrawing medical treatment with a deliberate intention of causing the patient‘s death' is permitted, provided guidelines and conditions are followed, active euthanasia, 'ending life through use of lethal substance' is not permitted in any circumstance.
The SC judgement today says of passive euthanasia, 'It does not cause death since by itself, it does not sustain life.'
Right To Life Includes Right To Die?
Article 21 of the Indian Constitution provides that, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.”
Petitioners have argued that 'right to life' includes the 'right to die', a clause rejected by the Supreme Court in the Gian Kaur verdict where it maintained that 'there is no 'right to die' under Article 21 of the constitution. '
The five-judge bench in a unanimous decision today, however, agreed that all human beings have the 'right to die with dignity', notwithstanding the strict guidelines for permission for passive euthanasia.
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"There is no right to die‘ under Article 21 of the Constitution and the right to life includes the right to live with human dignity but in the case of a dying person who is terminally ill or in permanent vegetative state, he may be allowed a premature extinction of his life and it would not amount to a crime," read the SC judgement.
