Euthanasia in India

Euthanasia in India: Meaning, Types, and Position

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This article on ‘Euthanasia in India: Meaning, Types and, Position’ was written by an intern at Legal Upanishad.

Introduction

Is Euthanasia Legal in India? The article discusses the position of Euthanasia in India. The tremendous advances in medicine and contemporary technology have had to have a major impact on the society in which we live. They brought to the fore the problems that are changing the patterns of human life and social values. The Paris Pass with these changes is a growing affirmation of human rights, autonomy and freedom of choice. These issues have forced us to reassess the notions of social and medical ethics and values.

Among these issues, palliative care and quality of life for patients suffering from intractable diseases such as advanced cancer and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have become quite important and tremendous areas of clinical care and research (Vinod K. Sinha). Expand the palliative care, standards and quality of agenda of research on life to clinical issues in cancer patients, including their efforts which are focused on mental health issues of an individual such as psychological symptoms in patients with neuropsychiatric syndrome and end-stage medical illness. This has made great progress.

However, perhaps the most compelling of all clinically relevant aspects of mental health in palliative care today is related to assisted suicide and, most importantly, physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and their focused relationship to the issue of depression.

Proponents seeking autonomy about when and how patients die have become more and more vocal in recent years, triggered by Dr.’s attention. Jack Kevorkian, Timothy Quill, Arna Chambord. These cases focus on the plight of patients dying from a terminal illness. However, political and legal tactics that are often overlooked are suicidal ideation, the desire for premature death or medical, social, and psychological factors that may contribute to the demand for end-stage PAS (such as depression) is the importance of End-stage patients.

Meaning and Different Types of Euthanasia

Black Law Dictionary defines Euthanasia as Killing or assisting a person in dying who is/was suffering from an incurable disease. It is a particularly a very painful condition for a number of compassionate reasons. Euthanasia has been declared as an act of death that represents and displays a permanent relief from pain, or an intolerable state of life. Simply euthanasia is a habit of ending an individual mercifully. “Euthanasia” comes from the Greek language. “Eu” means “easy or good” and “Thanatos” means “death”. It is also popularly known as Murder of Mercy.

Express the intention to end the life of the patient at the very request of the patient. The true meaning of euthanasia means killing humans and ending their lives painlessly, especially in the case of end-stage pain. The life of an individual becomes meaningless because of terminal mental or physical disabilities pertaining to their respective lives. Mercy Killing or the act of Euthanasia is an activity that involves killing people and ending their lives to relieve people of incurable pain and suffering or allow/cause painless death to an individual when life becomes totally meaningless and uncomfortable in every possible way.

In the modern context, euthanasia is limited to the killing of patients by medical practitioners and doctors, at the behest of the patient’s request to relieve or relieve him/her from intolerable pain and Incurable disease (Roy). Therefore, the basic intent behind euthanasia is to relieve the pain of the situation the death of a person who dies after prolonged suffering.  Euthanasia can be classified as follows –

  1.  Positive or Active
  2.  Negative or passive  
  3.  Involuntary
  4.  Voluntary

Is Forcing People to Stay Alive legal?

  • This is the most important question at the time of euthanasia. People and medical professionals are of the view that an individual should never be forced to stay alive. Legal provisions and purely medical ethics are required so that all possible means must be used to keep an individual alive (Kulkarni). It is against the law and practice to insist on delaying death by available means, contrary to the patient’s will. It is also unfriendly and also inhumane in nature.  
  • There will also come a time when continuous attempts will be made at healing and are compassionate, wise, or medically and clinically unhealthy. Second, every intervention should be “only” aimed at relieving pain and helping patients and their relatives. These reasons are suggestive and suggestive. When thinking about euthanasia, it cannot be mandatory. Not all cases have the same scale because all cases are different.
  • Death is not a particular right of an individual. It is the ending of all rights and the fixed and saddened destiny that none of us can ever escape it. The ultimate human right that we possess as an individual is that we have the absolute right to life, an inviolable right that even the very owner of it can never deprive us of. It is very similar to the fact that our right to freedom of life does not give us the correct and substantiated freedom to commit to the slavery of death. Moreover, this right to die is not synonymous with the right to also “die with dignity.”
  • The question of whether Article 21 of the Indian Constitution includes the right to die first arose in the state of Maharashtra which was for Maruti Shripathi Dubal under some consideration. In this case, the Bombay High Court was of the view and further ruled that “right to life” includes “right to die” too and Article 309 of the Indian constitution was deleted subsequently. The court in this case clearly stated that the right to die was not unnatural. It’s just an anomalous circumstance. The court also mentioned that in many cases a person may want to end his life. This was confirmed by the honourable Supreme Court in the case of the Latinum v Union of India. But in the case of Gian Kaur v. the State of Punjab, five Supreme Court judges ruled and were of the view that the “right to life” which is guaranteed by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution does not include the “right to die.”
  • In particular, he was introduced to dealing with euthanasia in India. An individual will be punished based on Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (Das).
Euthanasia in India
Euthanasia in India: Meaning, Types and, Position

Consequences of Legalization

  • However, there are many opinions in favour of legalizing euthanasia in India. For example, sick patients may be relieved of ongoing misery and suffering. There are also some arguments against legalizing euthanasia in India. And in my opinion, euthanasia, whether active or passive, voluntary or involuntary, should not be enshrined in Indian law.
  • If euthanasia in India is legalized, it can be severely abused by that part of Indian society enjoying mischief. Some of the possible results are:
  • Corruption is very prevalent in India. Even after many laws and regulations, it still floats above India. Bribes to hospital staff in an injustice hospital are very easy. There, malicious doctors shake hands with cold-blooded relatives to promote the barbaric act of killing such patients and false materialistic reports pursuing it. This usually occurs in hospitals where human life is of no value, but the only concern is the monetary valuation received for such immoral conduct. Organ trading is not an unfamiliar concept in India. Again, this could be a follow-up activity after death was accidentally caused by unwilling euthanasia.

Conclusion

As medicine is as advanced in India as in the world, there are now devices that can artificially extend lifespan. This indirectly prolongs the incurable condition and can prove to be very expensive for the affected family members. Therefore, end-of-life issues are becoming an important ethical consideration in modern Indian medicine. Pros and cons of euthanasia in India and other parts of the world are active.

However, the Indian Parliament does not seem to be sensitive to this. The Supreme Court’s groundbreaking ruling has given euthanasia activists a lot of support, but there is still a long way to go before it is enacted in Congress. Moreover, the concern about the abuse continues to be an important issue to be addressed before it becomes a law in our country.

Bibliography

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