Editorial: Supreme Court's revolutionary decision on the right to die
Harish had gone into a 'vegetative state' (complete insanity) in medical terminology after suffering serious injuries due to a fall.
The Supreme Court has allowed the right to die with dignity (voluntary euthanasia) to be implemented in a landmark judgment issued on Wednesday. Although the apex court had given legal recognition to the above right through a landmark judgment in 2018 and then simplified the implementation of the 2018 judgment through another judgment in 2023, the importance of the latest judgment is that it has opened the way for action on the earlier judgments. The new judgment was given by a bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice KV. Vishwanath on the petition of Ashok Rana, a resident of Uttar Pradesh. Ashok Rana, through his petition, had sought relief from this condition for his son Harish Rana (32), who had been unconscious for 13 years, and had requested that further medical assistance be stopped to Harish so that he could die naturally.
The petition was pending since November last year. During the preliminary hearing, a bench headed by Justice Pardiwala constituted a board of doctors to examine the medical condition of the patient in the light of the judgments of 2018 and 2023. This board confirmed Harish Rana's insanity and physical disability. Harish had gone into a 'vegetative state' (complete insanity) in medical terminology after suffering serious injuries due to a fall from a high building in 2013. After this report, the second board of medical experts endorsed the first report and said that in Harish's case, things like making breathing possible, feeding food through the tubes and excretion of excrement etc. are being done only with the help of machines. There is no possibility of the patient coming out of such a condition. However, the mention of wounds and skin rotting at places on his body due to continuous lying down was also part of this report. After examining the report, the bench of judges reserved its verdict on January 15. It was published on Wednesday. The verdict has allowed Harish to be withdrawn from life support so that he can die naturally.
Euthanasia is not a new practice in the modern world. It has been legally recognized in more than 70 countries of the world. This practice is applied only to those patients who have no chance of coming out of mental insanity and or who are suffering from an incurable disease (such as cancer) to the extent that they are not in a position to bear any more pain. Legally, four types of euthanasia have been defined: voluntary (i.e. with the patient's own consent), non-voluntary (without the patient's consent), active (direct action - with death medication) and passive (with medical assistance i.e. by removing machines). The Harish Rana case falls under the 'passive' category and the Supreme Court has now given legal status to this category.
In their judgment, the Supreme Court has made it clear that no comatose patient can be killed without the approval of the primary and secondary medical boards. On this basis, the state high courts have been directed to initiate the process of setting up two such boards at the district level. These boards should be based on medical experts only. Permission to die should be granted only in the case of patients who are suffering from the very last stages of incurable diseases like cancer or who have been in permanent coma for a long time or who have reached a state of permanent helplessness due to diseases like neurodegenerative diseases. This decision of the apex court is truly revolutionary in the context of the Indian social order. It should be implemented with as much sensitivity as the two Supreme Court judges have put into writing it.