Can You Let Me Go?

It’s been more than a year since the Supreme Court legalised passive euthanasia in India. While the decision was cheered by many and even attracted adverse comments from the country’s think-tank, the worrisome part is that there is still no clarity about what the issue is all about. And given the fact that even legalised passive euthanasia comes burdened with bureaucratic baggage, can it ever be implemented? Dignity Dialogue takes a closer look.

You have the right to live. And you have the right to die. That’s what individual freedom is all about. But is the issue as simple as that? When it comes to the question of choosing one’s own death, the topic of euthanasia and the controversy surrounding it kicks in. To understand why, we need to go back to the case of Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug which triggered a landmark moment for the euthanasia debate in India. Shanbaug was a nurse working in the King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEM) in Mumbai. On the evening of November 27, 1973, she was brutally raped. She survived, but asphyxiation had cut the blood and oxygen supply to parts of her brain, which resulted in her being in a permanent vegetative state ever since.

On January 24, 2011, after Shanbaug had been in this state for 37 years, the Supreme court of India responded to a plea for euthanasia filed by journalist Pinki Virani by setting up a medical panel to examine her. The court rejected the petition on March 7, 2011. However, in a landmark opinion, it allowed passive euthanasia in India. Shanbaug died of pneumonia on May 18, 2015. When Virani first raised the issue of euthanasia for Shanbaug, the KEM nurses were furious. And later, when the Supreme court of India rejected the mercy killing plea for Shanbaug in its landmark judgment in 2011, they rejoiced and celebrated the ‘new birth’ of Shanbaug by distributing sweets.