Legalization of Euthanasia in India
Legalizing Euthanasia: If you love them, let them go
The legalization of euthanasia or “mercy killing” to end suffering painlessly, has been one of the favourite topics for heated discussions in many countries around the word especially in India. Many terminally-ill patients do not have a possibility to recover, but the strict and stringent laws do not allow doctors to help them in ending their lives. In this paper, I will argue why euthanasia should be legalized in India.
Not much light had been shed on the concept of Euthanasia in India until the famous Aruna Shanbhaug Judgement in 2011. In 1973, Aruna Shanbhaug, a nurse working at the KEM Hospital in Bombay was brutally raped, which rendered her in a vegetative state. This judgement sparked a rage of debates across the country, on the topic of legalization of euthanasia. However, even after remaining in a vegetative state for thirty seven years, Aruna’s lawyer was not able to convince the Indian government to take any firm action for legalizing euthanasia.
It was only in 2010 when the Supreme Court of India responded to the plea for euthanasia filed by Aruna's friend journalist Pinki Virani, by setting up a medical panel to examine her. In 2011, the Supreme Court finally passed a judgment that clarified that” Passive Euthanasia” was not illegal. It was a momentous step forward but one that ironically kept Aruna outside its pale because her erstwhile colleagues, the nurses in KEM Hospital who cared for her, refused to let go. And so Aruna lives on — unable to see, talk, move or emote, and fed through a tube in her nose.
Euthanasia is divided into two categories, namely passive and active euthanasia. Passive Euthanasia is the gradual withdrawal of life support or the withholding of common treatments such as antibiotics, necessary for the continuation of life. In Aruna Shanbhaug’s case, the doctors at the KEM hospital would gradually have to stop force-feeding her through the tube (because that is the only thing
The legalization of euthanasia or “mercy killing” to end suffering painlessly, has been one of the favourite topics for heated discussions in many countries around the word especially in India. Many terminally-ill patients do not have a possibility to recover, but the strict and stringent laws do not allow doctors to help them in ending their lives. In this paper, I will argue why euthanasia should be legalized in India.
Not much light had been shed on the concept of Euthanasia in India until the famous Aruna Shanbhaug Judgement in 2011. In 1973, Aruna Shanbhaug, a nurse working at the KEM Hospital in Bombay was brutally raped, which rendered her in a vegetative state. This judgement sparked a rage of debates across the country, on the topic of legalization of euthanasia. However, even after remaining in a vegetative state for thirty seven years, Aruna’s lawyer was not able to convince the Indian government to take any firm action for legalizing euthanasia.
It was only in 2010 when the Supreme Court of India responded to the plea for euthanasia filed by Aruna's friend journalist Pinki Virani, by setting up a medical panel to examine her. In 2011, the Supreme Court finally passed a judgment that clarified that” Passive Euthanasia” was not illegal. It was a momentous step forward but one that ironically kept Aruna outside its pale because her erstwhile colleagues, the nurses in KEM Hospital who cared for her, refused to let go. And so Aruna lives on — unable to see, talk, move or emote, and fed through a tube in her nose.
Euthanasia is divided into two categories, namely passive and active euthanasia. Passive Euthanasia is the gradual withdrawal of life support or the withholding of common treatments such as antibiotics, necessary for the continuation of life. In Aruna Shanbhaug’s case, the doctors at the KEM hospital would gradually have to stop force-feeding her through the tube (because that is the only thing