News

In a secluded hospital bed in this bustling Indian metropolis that was Mumbai, Aruna was lain brain dead for over 42 years after a brutal sexual assault.

 

But India’s Supreme Court had ruled that Aruna Shanbaug should live, while at the same time supporting passive euthanasia – or the withholding of medical treatments that are keeping her alive.

 

The court’s decision to rule out euthanasia of any kind for Shanbaug had gladdened her former colleagues – nurses at the King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital – who were taking care of her since the day in 1973 when she was sodomised and strangled with a dog chain by a hospital custodian whose advances she had spurned.

 

The decision, however, had saddened Pinki Virani, the journalist who petitioned the court to allow euthanasia for her.

 

Virani also recognised the importance of the landmark decision in a country where euthanasia of any kind had previously been unlawful. This did not stop Virani from criticising Shanbaug’s fellow nurses who wanted to keep her alive.

 

“Because of Aruna Shanbaug – this tragic woman who has been denied the choice because of those who profess to ‘love’ her by touting her bedsore-less ‘life’ – no Indian hereinafter need suffer the way she does,” Virani had said after the apex court supported passive euthanasia despite not allowing it in the case of Aruna.

 

The Supreme Court verdict in 2011 came as a first step toward the passage of a law in India on euthanasia – allowing passive euthanasia in certain cases, based on merit.

 

The judged had observed that since “there is no statutory provision in our country as to the legal procedure for withdrawing life support to a person in PVS [permanent vegetative state]… passive euthanasia should be permitted in our country in certain situations.”

 

According to court euthanasia should not be permitted to Shanbaug because her caregivers are ready to tend to her medical needs. The hospital was taking care of her and as such the court decided that unless they want it, it will not be granted. Shanbaug’s family had shunned her since the incident. Virani’s petition was also rejected, as she was neither Shanbaug’s kin nor caregiver.