NEW DELHI, INDIA, March 10, 2018 (Times of India): In a milestone verdict expanding the right to life to incorporate the right to die with dignity, the Supreme Court on Friday legalized passive euthanasia and approved a living will to provide terminally ill patients or those in persistent and incurable vegetative state a dignified exit by refusing medical treatment or life support. The verdict, the latest in a string of boosts for individual freedoms by the apex court, was delivered by a constitution bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A. K. Sikri, A. M. Khanwilkar, D. Y. Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan. It 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, his/her life should not be prolonged through life support system. The person concerned can also authorise, through the will, any relative or friend to decide in consultation with medical experts when to pull the plug.
Given Indian sensitivities about life and death, testing the legality of the idea posed a complex medical, philosophical, constitutional and religious jigsaw for the bench. Displaying a rare unanimity of thought to weave a common constitutional principle, CJI Misra led his colleagues on the bench to harmonise the inevitable yet opposite facets — life and death — and say in unison that “right to die with dignity is an intrinsic facet of right to life guaranteed under Article 21”. However, to prevent possible misuse by greedy relatives eyeing the patient’s property, the SC provided for stringent guidelines for preparing and giving effect to a living will and administration of passive euthanasia by involving multiple medical boards comprising several experts and even judicial officers.
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