Euthanasia Vis-À-Vis Right to Die with Dignity: An Analysis of Article 21 of the Constitution of India and Approach of the Indian Judiciary

Abstract

Questions are being asked as to whether it is right to continue life-sustaining medical treatment in cases where all hopes has extinguished or whether wishes of a person no more competent to exercise judgment and his wishes expressed before lapsing into incapacity of exercising judgment, be respected and complied with in terminating life. But, the risk and fear of misuse and abuse could be done away with the proper safeguards and specific guidelines. Due to the lethal indecision, people are increasingly relying on ‘living wills’, authorizing their surrogates to petition for removal of life sustaining devices in the event of becoming terminally ill. At the present time, “right to die with dignity” is being advocated by many organizations and individual. Many “right to die” societies are being created and living wills are becoming increasingly popular. There is also the issue of socio-economic viability linked with the right to die with dignity. The expense of health care system is increasing day by day all over the world. Keeping a person who is in a persistent vegetative state ‘alive’ by artificial respiratory system is an expensive affair today. In the light of recent developments (legal, moral and ethical), issues have arisen as to whether a person who is under ventilator and artificial nutrition should be kept alive for all time to come till the brain-stem collapses or whether, in circumstances where an informed body of medical opinion states that there are no chances of the patient’s recovery, the artificial support systems can be stopped.