In a milestone verdict, India's Supreme Court expanded the right to life to incorporate the right to die with dignity by legalising passive euthanasia and approved “living will” to provide terminally ill patients or those in persistent vegetative state a dignified exit. The verdict was passed by a constitution bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud, and Ashok Bhushan.
In a rare unanimity of thought, CJI Misra led his colleagues to harmonise life and death. This now empowers a person of sound mind and health to make a “living will” specifying that in the event of him/her slipping into a terminal medical condition in future, they should not be prolonged through a life support system. The person can also authorise through the will, any relative or friend to decide in consultation with medical experts when to pull the plug. With its ruling, the SC has recognised that an individual with terminal illness or in a state of irreversible vegetative condition has the agency to decide whether he/she would like to die.
“There comes a phase in life when the spring of life is frozen, the rain of circulation becomes dry, the movement of body becomes motionless, the rainbow of life becomes colourless and the word 'life' which one calls a dance in space and time becomes still and blurred and the inevitable death comes near to hold it as an octopus gripping firmly with its tentacles so that the person 'shall rise up never',” CJI Misra said. The SC, in a 538-page judgment containing four opinions, said passive euthanasia or a provision of passive euthanasia through “advance directive” or “living will” would save “a helpless person from uncalled for and unnecessary treatment when he is considered as merely a creature whose breath is felt or measured because of advanced medical technology.”
The bench also provided for stringent guidelines for preparing and giving effect to “living will” and administration of “passive euthanasia” by involving multiple medical boards comprising several experts and judicial officers.
