Legalisation of Passive Euthanasia in India

Right to Die with Dignity with Special Reference to ‘Advance Medical Directive’

Abstract

“Not long ago, the realms of life and death were delineated by a bright line. Now this line is blurred by wondrous advances in medical technology– advances that until recent years were only ideas conceivable by such science fiction visionaries as Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. Medical technology has entered a twilight zone of suspended animation where death commences while life, in some form, continues. Some patients, however, want no part of a life sustained only by medical technology. Instead, they prefer a plan of medical treatment that allows nature to take its course and permits them to die with dignity.”[1] This, however, is not free from legal tangles that hover around life and man induced death prompted by a vegetative state of a person whose continuance becomes burden not only for the stakeholders but also to his self. There are instances also where some have wished to advance their death in a fear of imminent but painful death because of the dreaded diseases from which they are suffering. This paper analysis the legal issues surrounding the legal mandate for euthanasia in light of the excitements dealing with subject in transnational jurisdictional the Indian judicial pronouncements.

[1]Rasmussen v. Fleming (1987) 154 Ariz 207 quoted in Law Commission of India, One Hundred and Ninety Sixth Report on ‘Medical Treatment to Terminally ill Patients (Protection of Patients and Medical Practitioners (2006)’, p. 67.