New Delhi: Ruling out the possibility of granting permission to withdraw the life support system from a 30-year-old person lying on bed in a vegetative state for the last 13 years, the Supreme Court has sought the assistance of the central government to explore if the 30-year-old man can be kept somewhere, where he can be given medical aid by the state.
A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said, “In order to examine if a humanitarian solution can be found to the problem or any facility be identified where the needs of the 30-year- old man can be taken care of, we seek central government’s response on the issue.”
Apex court order comes on a plea by ageing parents of a 30-year-old man
The order by the court comes on a petition by ageing parents of a 30 year old man seeking setting up of a medical board for passive euthanasia for their son.
The petition has been filed by Nirmala Devi and Ashok Rana, for their son Harish Rana, who is 30-year-old and was a student of Punjab University. He suffered head injuries after falling from the fourth floor of his paying guest house.
Our son has been bed-ridden since 2013 with 100% disability; have run out of financial means: Parents
The petition says Harish Rana has been bed-ridden since 2013 due to diffuse axonal injury with permanent vegetative state and Quadriplegia with 100% disability.
The parents says that they have run out of financial means to support their child and they have been informed that there is no scope of recovery of their son from the present situation and in this situation the parents be allowed to withdraw the life support system on which their son has been for the last 13 years.
Active euthanasia is not permissible in law: Apex court
The court was not impressed with the argument saying that if the ryles tube on the patient is withdrawn, the patient will die of starvation and moreover, the patient is not on ventilator or a life support system which can be withdrawn.
The court also said active euthanasia is not permissible in law.
Passive euthanasia occurs when medical practitioners do not provide life-sustaining treatment (i.e. treatment necessary to keep a patient alive) or remove patients from life-sustaining treatment. This could include disconnecting life support machines or feeding tubes or not carrying out life-saving operations or providing life-extending drugs.
