Azernews.Az

Akbar Novruz

Read more

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of India has permitted the withdrawal of life support for a 31-year-old man who has remained in a vegetative state for more than a decade, AzerNEWS reports.

The ruling allows the removal of life-sustaining treatment for Harish Rana, marking the first instance of court-approved passive euthanasia in India in a case where the patient had not left a written directive regarding medical treatment.

Passive euthanasia refers to the withdrawal or withholding of life-sustaining medical care, such as ventilators or feeding tubes, when recovery is deemed impossible. Rana had not prepared a “living will” before suffering the accident that left him in a prolonged vegetative condition.

India formally recognized passive euthanasia in 2018, when the Supreme Court ruled that individuals have the right to refuse life-prolonging treatment and allowed living wills outlining end-of-life medical decisions.

However, active euthanasia — any deliberate act intended to help a person end their life — remains illegal in India, and is punishable under the country’s criminal law.

Legal experts say the ruling may set an important precedent for future cases involving long-term vegetative patients without advance medical directives, while also highlighting ongoing ethical and legal debates over end-of-life care in the country.

In this case, Rana was not able to give his consent or expressly state that he wanted to be taken off life support as he was in a coma since the accident.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court noted that Rana has not been responding to treatment.

"He experiences sleep-wake cycles but exhibits no meaningful interaction and has been dependent on others for all activities of self-care," the judges said, according to legal news website Bar and Bench.

Rana was an engineering student at Punjab University in Chandigarh when he fell from the fourth-flour balcony of his paying guest accommodation.

Since then, he has been breathing with the help of a tracheostomy tube and is fed through a gastrostomy tube. He cannot speak, see, hear or recognise anyone, his parents have said.