Euthanasia- A Fight for Peaceful Death!

By -DISHA MASHELKAR

Forty two years of pain and suffering has finally ended for Aruna Shanbaug. The journey to Lord’s house has begun for her, who was mercilessly strangled by a dog’s chain and suffered sexual assault by a ward boy in the hospital. She was in coma and was helplessly left in the vegetative state for last so many years. The incident took place on 27 November 1973. It was the continuous effort of love and care which the nurses of KEM Hospital took for their colleague Aruna Shanbaug that kept her alive in this unbearable painful state.

Looking at her state of pain, Pinky Virani a journalist and Aruna’s friend had filed for a plea to stop forceful feeding her in the Supreme Court. In other words, it was a plea for ‘Euthanasia’. But in 2011, the Supreme Court of India had rejected this plea filed by Pinky Virani and Aruna Shanbaug was left in this vegetative state and then became a responsibility of the nurses of KEM hospital who never gave up on her treatment.

Allowing Euthanasia in India is a hovering question for several years. It is also a controversial issue in the developed nations like United States. Euthanasia is illegal in US but Physician-assisted suicide (PAD) is legal in some states of US. History has witnessed that, debates on Euthanasia and Physician-assisted suicide date from ancient Greece and Rome. After the development of ether, physicians began advocating the use of anaesthetics to relieve the pain of death. In 1870, Samuel Williams first proposed using anaesthetics and morphine to intentionally end a patient’s life.  

God gives us life which we live for once. Everyone has his/her destiny which decides on whether we will have a peaceful death or a painful death. Some people who believe in philosophy might link it to the concept of Karma while atheists might link it to the rational thought as how you receive death. A person who suffers from vegetative state has nothing in her/his hands to overcome the pain. Still blessed souls like Pinky Virani and the nurses from KEM hospital realised the pain of Aruna who was their colleague nurse. Euthanasia can be misused and old-people might be the first target of it. There are chances that old-people who are bed-ridden and there’s no one to look after them might be given Euthanasia against their will due to family pressure. But in certain cases like Aruna Shanbaug where there is a medical proof, the legal system of our nation need to give a second thought and at least think for a few minutes of unbearable it must be for those who are suffering such conditions.

Just close your eyes for a two minute. Imagine your body has been bed-ridden and you cannot make a move. There is a tingling sensation on your feet. You can feel it and want to badly scratch that part. But you can’t. This is exactly how the patient must be feeling. Hence Euthanasia is a subject which needs to be taken seriously and some provision needs to be enacted on it by our Judiciary.