Euthanasia

The literal definition of Euthanasia is ” Painless killing of Patient suffering from incurable and painful disease or patient is in inversible coma.” Barring few countries Euthanasia is not allowed generally. The countries where Euthanasia is legally allowed are  Albania, Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, Luxomburg, and in some countries it is allowed in the form of assisted suicide and they are Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Canada and certain states of America namely Washington, Colorado, Vermont, Montana, California and Washington DC.

Now a days people are talking about Passive and Active Euthanasia, and let us see how they differ from each other

Passive Euthanasia- is a situation when death is brought about by an omission ie when someone lets the person die. This can be done by withdrawing/with holding treatment, for example shutting off life supporting system so that persons die of their ailment. Friends you might have heard about patient who is in coma and put on ventilator, when the ventilator is switched off the patient dies.

You all are aware that some times the doctor says that he along with hospital facilities can not treat the patient further, you take the patient home, and after taking home , the death may occur after certain period, or when the family members are informed that the patient can not be treated further then the family members opt for voluntary discharge, these acts can also be treated as Passive Euthanasia.

Active Euthanasia- is a situation when death is brought by an act. For example when a person is killed by the over dose of Pain killers or by administrating lethal injection etc. Assisted suicide as mentioned above is refined part of  this act,  where  you have to take permission to do this act, of their own a doctors/medical staff can not take the decision.

What is India’s standing on Euthanasia–

In March 2011, the SC allowed the passive Euthanasia in the case Aruna Shanbhag, a nurse in KEM hospital who was in Coma for more than 25 years and staff of the hospital was taking care of her. After this judgement Passive Euthanasia is generally allowed. The govt is in the process of drafting the bill.

Now yesterday in the SC there was one more development, when SC agreed to examine  “Living Will “. A Living Will is document  signed by a person when she/he is in a sane mind, specifying that if She/he slides into vegetative state then the her/his life should not be prolonged with life support system. What was SC observation ” To die peacefully without suffering is a right under Article 21 of the constitution. But one can not commit suicide. However, one has a right to say while dying let me not suffer”. The govt stand is it has yet to examine the Pros and Cons of the  concept of  Living Will.Govt counsel then added that as draft bill for Passive Euthanasia is still not finalised, it would be good idea to add Living Will also  for legislation after detailed deliberations. The SC also said in the Living Will concept one has to consider the possibility of   coercion or fraud by greedy relatives, a practice prevalent in the society which can not be ignored.

More to follow on this topic.

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