Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in India
Source : Indian Express
GS II : Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
What is discussed under Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in India?
- What is Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia?
- Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in India
Why in News ?
Jean-Luc Godard one of the legends of French New Wave cinema died earlier this week by assisted suicide at the age of 91.
What is Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia?
- Bot are, a person intentionally ends their life with active assistance from others.
- A doctor may end a patient’s life in a painless way if both the patient and their family consent is Euthanasia.
- If a patient desires it, a doctor will aid them in killing themselves is Assisted Suicide.
Euthanasia can further be divided into two
- Passive Euthanasia
- When life-sustaining treatments are withheld.
- Increasing doses of strong pain-management medications, may eventually be toxic for the individual.
- Active Euthanasia
- When someone uses lethal substances or forces to end the person’s life.
- It is done by by the individual themselves or somebody else.
Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in India
- Supreme Court of India legalised passive euthanasia in 2018, stating that it was a matter of living will.
- An adult in his conscious mind is permitted to refuse medical treatment or voluntarily decide not to take medical treatment to embrace death in a natural way, under certain conditions.
- The court specifically stated that the rights of a patient, in such cases, would not fall out of the purview of Article 21.
Aruna Shanbaug case
- The court had authorised passive euthanasia for the nurse who had endured decades in a vegetative state while deciding on a petition filed on behalf of Aruna Shanbaug.
- Discussions on the legality of euthanasia and the right to die in India put Shanbaug at their centre.
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