LEGAL REALITY OF EUTHANASIA IN INDIA- (Blog)


When a person takes birth, he is desirous to live and enjoy the fruits of life to the fullest till he dies. But due to various circumstances, his life comes to an end by unnatural means. If a person ends his life by himself, this act is called ‘suicide’, if a person ends the life of another it’s called ‘homicide’, but to end life of a person by others with the request of the deceased is called ‘euthanasia’ or ‘mercy killing’. Though suicide and euthanasia seems to be similar, the objectives behind them are contrasting.

Euthanasia is mainly associated with terminal illness or who have become incapacitated and don’t want to go through the pains and sufferings throughout the life. This is one of the controversial issues which have deep impact on morals, values and beliefs of the society. Recently the Supreme Court has legalised ‘passive euthanasia’ in India with the Judgement of Aruna Shanbaug.

Passive Euthanasia:

Euthanasia is passive when the treatment that is sustaining life of the patient is held off, resulting in death of the patient. In passive euthanasia, usually the life supporting devices are removed to cause death to a person who is virtually dead and doctors do not actively kill the patients but they stop the attempts to save them.

Legal Aspects in India:

In India, euthanasia is undoubtedly illegal. It is because, in case of euthanasia there is an intention on the part of doctor to kill the patient and such an act falls U/S. 300(1) of IPC. Provision for punishing ‘attempt to commit suicide’ is contained in Section 309 and this is under the scanner for its constitutionality but is not scrapped by the Court yet. “Right to suicide” is not an available right. Though the Indian Constitution grants “right to life” as a Fundamental Right Under Article 21, it does not include “right to die” as decided in the case of Gian Kaur vs. State of Punjab[1].

Landmark Judgement on euthanasia in India:

The Judgement of the Supreme Court in Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug vs. UOI[2] has opened the gateway for the ‘legalization of passive euthanasia in India’. In this case, a petition was filed for seeking allowance for euthanasia for Aruna who was in vegetative state. The Court dismissed the petition and observed that “passive euthanasia is permissible under supervision of law in exceptional cases”, but did not permit euthanasia. Hence, with this the Court has recognised “right to die with dignity” as a Fundamental Right U/A 21which will help to alleviate the hardships of the person suffering with incurable diseases.   

Conclusion:

There are arguments in favour of and against the legalization of passive euthanasia, but when the moral objective behind this is considered, I go with the words of Friedrich Nietzsche “one should die proudly, when it’s no longer possible to live proudly” and hence, the decision of the SC in this regard is commendable.


[1] 1996 (2) SCC 648

[2] 2011 (3) SCALE 298


-Anusha C Gudagur
K.L.E Society’s Law College.

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