Context:
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released draft guidelines for Passive Euthanasia.
Key Highlights:
- Conditions for Withdrawing Life Sustaining Treatments (LST) –
- Declared Brainstem Death as per the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.
- If the patient is unlikely to benefit from aggressive therapeutic interventions.
- Documented informed refusal to LST by the patient or surrogate.
- Constitution of Medical Boards –
- Proposals for foregoing LST should be made by consensus among Primary Medical Board (PMB) members.
- Secondary Medical Board (SMB) must validate the PMB’s decision.
- Clinical Ethics Committee – Hospitals must constitute the committee for audit, oversight, and conflict resolution.
Euthanasia:
- Deliberately ending a person’s life to relieve suffering from a painful and incurable disease or disorder.
- Passive Euthanasia –
- Intentionally letting a patient die by withholding artificial life support like a ventilator or feeding tube.
- Legality – Allowed in countries like Norway.
- India’s Stance – Recognized by the Supreme Court in the Common Cause vs. Union of India & Anr. (2018) case, which upheld the right to die with dignity as a fundamental right under Article 21.
- Active Euthanasia –
- Intentional act of killing a terminally ill patient on voluntary request by direct intervention of a doctor.
- Legality – Allowed in countries like Belgium but illegal in India.
Read more about Living wills
Source: The Indian Express
Previous Year Question
Right to Privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty. Which of the following in the Constitution of India correctly and appropriately imply the above statement?
[UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2020 Prelims]
(a) Article 14 and the provisions under the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution.
(b) Article 17 and the Directive Principles of State Policy in Part IV.
(c) Article 21 and the freedoms guaranteed in Part III.
(d) Article 24 and the provisions under the 44th Amendment to the Constitution.
Answer: (c)
