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India's Supreme Court ruled Monday that life support could legally be removed for certain terminally ill patients, allowing "passive euthanasia" for the first time. The judgment came during a hearing on former nurse Aruna Shanbaug, who has been in a vegetative state in a Mumbai hospital since being raped and strangled with a chain while at work 37 years ago. A plea by her friend Pinki Virani to stop her from being force-fed was rejected by top court on the grounds that Virani could not legally make the demand on Shanbaug's behalf. However, doctors and nurses are able to petition to withdraw life support, provided the request was supervised by the courts, a two-judge bench in the Supreme Court ruled in a highly complex judgement. "Active euthanasia is illegal," the court ruled, referring to the process of doctors ending a patient's life with lethal medication. "Passive euthanasia is permissible, but it should be done under the supervision of the High Court." Virani filed the case in the Supreme Court in 1999. "Death in certain conditions can be allowed, only if life support, nutrition or water is removed," Shubhangi Tulli, Virani's lawyer, explained to the assembled press outside the court. Shanbaug is blind and in a vegetative state, according to doctors who examined her as part of the Supreme Court case. For the last 37 years, she has been fed mashed food and cared for in hospitals. "The court has accepted the withdrawal of a life support system, but has not given the permission to inject any lethal substance," Lawyer T. R. And-hyarujina, who advised the Supreme Court in the case, explained. Agencies |
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