Euthanasia plea: Supreme Court seeks doctors’ help

In a crucial case regarding bestowing legality to euthanasia, the Supreme Court has sought the personal presence of 3 doctors from Mumbai to assist it on the vexed question of permitting mercy killing of a rape victim who is virtually brain dead for the past 36 years.  

A bench of Justice Markandeya Katju and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra on Friday sought the presence of the doctors JV Divatia, Roop Gurshani and Nilesh Shah on March 2 to help the court understand the content of their report concerning the condition of Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug, who had been brutally sexually assaulted by a ward boy and left to suffer all her life. 

On January 24, the judges sought the attorney general’s response on the matter if euthanasia could be legalised on certain conditions. They also appointed a team of doctors to examine Shanbaug and submit a detailed report.  

“Euthanasia is one of the most perplexing issues which the courts and legislatures all over the world are facing today,” the judges observed.  
The apex court said it is “facing the same issue and we feel like a ship in an unchartered sea, seeking some guidance by the light thrown by the legislations and judicial precedents of foreign countries”. 

Shanbaug’s friend Pinki Virani, a writer, who moved the top court drawing the victim’s condition sought permission for switching off the life-saving machines to save her from being a prolonged vegetative being. Let her die peacefully, Virani had said.