Live & let die

V-Guard tycoon Kochousef Chittilappilly wants to die. But he wants to die at the time and place of his choosing, regardless of the condition of his health. He is one of a growing number of people in India who wish to end this life with dignity, and not be at the mercy of the courts and medicine. DNA reports.

 "Life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one."
 --Khalil Gibran
                                                                                                      
How about greeting death after a long innings in life and saying, “Hello. Nice to meet you. Will you let me come along with you now?”  If at a ripe age, when nature starts leaving telltale signs reminding you it is about time you went behind the purdah and returned to the stage in a different form, do you go into the ‘light’ with dignity and at the time of your own choosing, or do you rage against the dying of the light until it has shorn you of all semblance of self-respect?

The thought has struck many in the past. Nearer home, a retired schoolmaster from Thrissur, Kerala (in his mid seventies), CA Thomas, way back in early 90s initiated legal proceedings demanding a dignified death with medical assistance at a ripe age as his fundamental right. It was not euthanasia he was asking for. His health was good, except for the fact that he was partially deaf. For this bold request he suffered the ridicule of the Church, his family, and friends who all termed him a ‘mad as a coot’.

Thomas waited in vain for several years, pleading all the while that he had faith in the Indian judiciary and he would not like to ‘commit suicide’ but wanted a legal, a medically-assisted “happy death” just like we throw a farewell party, “see you again, so long” probably with a song on his lips.

“I may be a Christian, but I am an Indian who inherits the great tradition of allowing one to choose his way of life and death at the fag end of his life. Ancient India gave this freedom to all, that is Vanvas. It is the English law, Christian beliefs as life being sacred, and the Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence that denied us this right and held life as ‘precious and sacred’. I want my rights back. Please allow medicine to help me die a peaceful and pleasant death as I have fulfilled all my duties as a son, a husband, a father, and a teacher. I wish no more to sit idly waiting for death to claim me.”

He said a voluntary death was part of his Fundamental Rights. Though his brilliant advocate Vincent Panikulangara ably pushed his plea for a judicial pronouncement, what Thomas received after many years of adjournment was a curt dismissal saying the Constitution did not envisage a provision for his request.
But what got the cause a bigger boost was when the billionaire of a growing empire got into the act at almost the same time.

Kochousef Chittilappilly, who presides over the Rs1,000 crore V-Guard group which he built with just Rs1 lakh approached the judiciary for the same cause, though he was only 50 at the time.
Chittilappilly, the creator of Wonder La in Bangalore, was pulverised by the stirring sufferings of the aged who, he said in his petition, became hapless in the hands of well-meaning relatives and hospitals who try to prolong life through artificial means.

“My plea is to allow myself a natural death, with only painkillers being administered. If I am afflicted with a terminal disease after 70, or meet with accident that debilitates me so much I cannot continue without constant, intensive medical care, I may not be put on ventilator or such artificial means and be allowed a natural death with only drugs to dull the pain.”

The industry leader has sought a decree that prohibits his dependence or doctors deciding against his wishes, and gives him the right to die a dignified death.

The court has issued a notice to the Central government and Kerala government and is still awaiting a reply, several years after he filed the petition.

Kochousef had to pay a heavy price for his conviction. He is not a practicing Christian though he keeps the church in good humour with liberal charity activities.

Priests and bishops made many attempts to instill the fear of god in him, but he chuckled while talking with the SundayDNA, “A well-meaning bishop once told a friend of mine to ask me not to keep talking about this in public. ‘If Kochousef wants to do it let him do it but why crow about it’ the Bishop has argued.”

The writer is the author of  The Romance of Death (Paico, 2007)