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Health & Medicine
Mahesh

07/09/24 10:34 AM IST

Passive euthanasia

In News
  • In 2011, the Supreme Court for the first time recognised the legality of passive euthanasia in the case of Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug v Union of India.
Aruna Shanbaug case
  • In 2011, the Supreme Court for the first time recognised the legality of passive euthanasia in the case of Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug v Union of India.
  • After being sexually assaulted by a ward attendant of Mumbai’s KEM Hospital in 1973 and suffering a brain injury in the process, nurse Aruna Shanbaug was left in a ‘persistent vegetative state’ for decades, with no possibility of recovery.
  • The court, while ruling out passive euthanasia in this case, held that Shanbaug was still alive as she did not require life support.
  • However, the court recognised the legality of passive euthanasia, though it clarified that this could only be done with the approval of a High Court.
  • In 2018, the Supreme Court recognised the legality of ‘passive euthanasia’ for terminally-ill patients, holding that the ‘right to die with dignity’ forms a part of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
  • The court also laid down detailed guidelines for passive euthanasia, both in cases where the patient left an ‘advance directive’ or a ‘living will’ stating that life support should be withdrawn if they fall terminally ill, and in cases where no such directive was left behind.
  • Among the guidelines was the condition that the living will must be signed in the presence of two witnesses and signed by a Judicial Magistrate.
  • The guidelines also called for multiple approvals before the terminally ill patient’s case is cleared – from the treating physician, a suitably qualified medical board, and another external medical board, with representation from the local administration.
  • In the case of patients without a living will, the family has to give their consent for withdrawal of life support.
  • In 2019, the Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine filed an application for modifying these guidelines, stating that they were cumbersome and unworkable.
  • In 2023, another five-judge bench allowed the guidelines to be modified in a number of ways.
  • This included introducing timelines for each board to make a decision, and limiting the involvement of the Judicial Magistrate.

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