Re: [nukkad] Thoughts on Euthanasia

["Mahesh chandra Gupta" <>]

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My views are as follows;

A) Patient taking his/her own life -- This is suicide and the individual's
own decision. Suicide is crime under section 309 of the Indian Penal Code,
1860. This section was struck down in rathinam v. UOI in 1994 by supreme
court, stating that the right to life under article 21 of the constitution
included right to die. in this case, the SC differentiated suicide from
euthanasia [taking of life by another person] and rejected the plea that
mercy killing should be allowed by law. However, in Gian Kaur case, the  SC
in 1996 resurrected section 309. However, if the patient succeeds in the
attempt of suicide, nothing else remains. If he is unsuccessful, even though
the attempt is illegal, hardly anybody would seriously try to punish him.

B) Patient asking doctor to prescribe medicine and help (either actively or
passively) the patient take his/her own life (effectively having the consent
of the doctor) --- this is confusing. Nothing prevents the patient from
asking his doctor to prescribe or otherwise help in a mode of killing. If
the doctor agrees to his request, he will be committing a crime under
section 306 [abetment of suicide].

C) Relatives deciding to terminate life support to a patient in a comatose
state for an extended period of time which the physicians believe there is a
very low probability of the patient coming out of: If the patient's
treatment cost is being met by the relatives, they have every right not to
contribute a dime towards cost of treatment. The ball would then be in the
hospital's court. The hospital can then ask the relatives to take back the
patient from the hospital. If they respond, good enough. The objective will
be achieved with none having committed a crime. If the relatives do not take
away the patient, the hospital will be in a tricky situation. The best
course for them, if they are not a government hospital, would  be to ask a
government hospital to take the patient. If they agree, well and good.
Chances are, they might decline. In this situation, law does not permit a
doctor or hospital to withhold treatment to the patient. Legally, the course
open to the hospital might be to approach a court to issue orders asking the
government hospital to take over the patient and, in the mean time, continue
treating him. this would be a course few hospitals would like to follow. In
practical terms, their best bet would be to allow the life support system to
become less intensive, being careful not to commit detectable and actionable
crime. The ultimate outcome can be imagined,to  which everybody would again
be reconciled.

D) patient being denied physician care (that could save his/her life),
leading to his/her death: This would be crime and has been discussed above.

Dr. MC Gupta
June 20

----- Original Message -----
From: "Indian Rediff" <indian_rediff@mail.com>
To: <nukkad-list@mumbai-central.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 7:51 PM
Subject: [nukkad] Thoughts on Euthanasia
> Some time back there was a discussion on this. I thought this would be a
good time to resume this discussion. Especially since we are considering
capital punishment on the one hand and mercy killing o the other.



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