Apex court to watch CD on euthanasia case

Taking an unusual step, two judges of the Supreme Court, justice Markandey Katju and justice Gyan Sudha Misra, will view a CD prepared by a panel of doctors concerning Aruna Shanbaug who is confined to a bed in KEM Hospital for the past 37 years.  

She has been reduced to a vegetative state after a ward boy sexually assaulted her in 1973.  

The judges want to see for themselves the present state of Shanbaug and also seek the doctors’ opinion wherever necessary.    

The screening of the CD will be held in the judges’ chamber on Monday. It will be restricted to the parties involved in the law suit filed by Shanbaug’s friend Pinki Virani, an author, seeking permission to allow the victim end her life by euthanasia (mercy killing). 

There are conflicting reports about Shanbaug’s condition.

While Virani says she is like a vegetative being, the panel of doctors claims that 59-year-old Shanbaug likes fish and chicken soup. Also, she calms down after listening to devotional music and dislikes too many people in her room. Shanbaug herself was a nursing sister in the hospital.