Living Will

A Step Ahead of Legalizing Passive Euthanasia in India

Abstract

In recent times, the concept of ‘living will’ has gained importance throughout the world, and India is no exception to it. The concept of euthanasia has gained more attention in the Covid-19 pandemic era. During the pandemic, people in the West offered themselves for involuntary euthanasia to opt for a dignified death. However, this desire to die with human dignity is not new. From time immemorial, there has been an obvious desire among humans to have a dignified death. The concept of living will viz-a-viz euthanasia has always been related to basic human rights like the right to life, the right to die with dignity, etc. The living will, as an extended form of euthanasia gives a choice to a person to make an “advance medical directive” not to opt for medical treatment under certain circumstances and instead opt for a dignified death. In India, whatever is in the realm of euthanasia has been in the form of law laid down by the Supreme Court of India. In the backdrop of Indian culture and religious belief, it will be very interesting to see how and to what extent Indian society will accept the concept of “living will” and “euthanasia”. The present paper aims to critically evaluate the concept of ‘living will’ viz-a-viz ‘euthanasia’ and analyse the historical perspective of ‘wilful death’ in India. It also aims to evaluate the merits and demerits of legalising the concept of ‘living will’ in India. The paper also examines how far such a concept will go in a country like India. In the present paper, the doctrinal method has been used to study the concept of euthanasia and living will. For this purpose, various online and offline books, research papers, and case laws have been referred to. Besides this, evaluative and critical approaches have been adopted. This research paper mainly covers the ‘living will’ with suicide and mercy killing in Indian society. The paper attempts to suggest/ find reformatory measures to overcome the problem of ‘living will’.