Euthanasia

2. About Euthanasia

• Euthanasia is the act of deliberately ending a person's life to relieve suffering.
• Euthanasia, which comes from the Greek words meaning “a good death”, refers to
• the practice under which an individual intentionally ends their life. Euthanasia
• falls under the category of assisted dying, which also includes assisted suicide.
• Assisted suicide is illegal under the terms of the Suicide Act (1961) and is punishable by up to 14 years imprisonment. Trying to kill yourself is not a criminal act.
• Depending on the circumstances, euthanasia is regarded as either manslaughter or murder. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment.

3. Types of euthanasia

Euthanasia can be classified as:

• voluntary euthanasia – where a person makes a conscious decision to die and asks for help to do so
• non-voluntary euthanasia – where a person is unable to give their consent (for example, because they're in a coma) and another person takes the decision on their behalf, perhaps because the ill person previously expressed a wish for their life to be ended in such circumstances

4. Historical context of Euthanasia

• Euthanasia was practised in both ancient Greece and Rome, wherein hemlock was employed as a means of hastening death. 
• The term itself was used for the first time by philosopher Francis Bacon and expanded upon later by Karl Marx. 
• Suicide and euthanasia become acceptable practices during the Age of Enlightenment in Europe and countries like Japan where suicide was used as a means to preserve a person’s honour and therefore not considered to be a sin.
• In Dying with Dignity (2015), Giza Lopes writes that in the mid-19th century, doctors regularly used morphine or chloroform to induce the death of patients who were terminally ill with no hope for recovery. 
• The first attempt to legalise euthanasia took place in the United States in 1906, but the campaign was ultimately unsuccessful. 
• In 1935, the movement regained steam in England with the formation of the Voluntary Euthanasia Legalisation Society. 
• In 1936, King George V of England was given a fatal dose of morphine and cocaine to hasten his death, although this event was kept secret for another 50 years.
• In one of the more controversial examples of historic euthanasia, in 1939, Nazi Germany conducted the mass killing of mentally and physically impaired people and more than 300,000 died in the process. 
• Later, during World War Two, British and American soldiers kept lethal pills on themselves to be used if they were captured or compromised. 
• In a landmark announcement in 1957, the Vatican proclaimed that passive euthanasia was permissible under the church’s doctrine.
• This led to an increasing number of countries legalising either passive or active euthanasia over some time.

5. Legality of Euthanasia

• Active euthanasia is legal in only a handful of countries and necessitates
• deliberately using substances or forces to end the life of another person.
• Today, a handful of countries have legalised assisted dying in its various forms. 
• In Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal, around 1.5 per cent of Swiss deaths are the result of the practice. 
• People also travel to Switzerland for assisted suicide, with statistics from 2018 indicating that around 221 people visited the country for it.
• Both euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium in cases where someone is experiencing unbearable suffering with no chance of improvement. 
• There is no requirement to be terminally ill and the law even allows for people with mental illness to undergo the practice. In March 2021,
• Spain made it legal for people to end their lives in some circumstances and the same year, Canada expanded its law on assisted dying.
• Colombia is the first, and so far, only, Latin American country to decriminalize euthanasia. 
• Several states in Australia also allow euthanasia with similar legislation
• enacted in New Zealand. Several states in America allow assisted dying with Oregon and Washington being the two most prominent. In India, passive euthanasia was legalised by the Supreme Court in 2018, as long as a person has a “living will” that specifies what actions should be taken if they are unable to make their own medical decisions in the future. 
• If the person does not have a living will, their relatives are allowed to petition the high courts for permission to allow passive euthanasia.
• The moral debate surrounding assisted dying falls under the realm of bioethics.

6. Legality around Euthanasia

• Article 21 includes the right to die or not first came into consideration in the case State of Maharashtra v. Maruti Shripati Dubai. 
• It was held in this case by the Bombay High Court that ‘right to life also includes ‘right to die’ and Section 309 was struck down. 
• The court clearly said in this case that the right to die is not unnatural; it is just uncommon and abnormal. Also, the court mentioned many instances in which a person may want to end his life. 
• This was upheld by the Supreme Court in the case P. Rathinam v. Union of India. However, in the case Gian Kaur v. the State of Punjab it was held by the five-judge bench of the Supreme Court that the “right to life” guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution does not include the “right to die”. 
• The court mentioned in this case that Article 21 only guarantees the right to life and personal liberty and in no case can the right to die be included in it. In India, like almost in other countries, euthanasia has no legal aspect. 
• Every act of aiding and abetting the commission of suicide is punished under section 306 of the I.P.C. 
• Distinguishing euthanasia from suicide, Justice Lodha in Naresh Maratra Sakhee vs Union of India, observed that “suicide by its nature is an act of self-killing or self-destruction, an act of terminating one’s act and without the aid or assistance of any other human agency. 
• “Mercy killing is nothing but homicide, whatever the circumstances in which it is affected. Unless it is specifically accepted it cannot be an offence. Indian Penal Code further punishes not only abetment of homicide but also abetment of suicide”.

7. The reasons encouraging Euthanasia

• End of Pain: Euthanasia provides a way to relieve the intolerably extreme pain and suffering of an individual. It relieves terminally ill people from a lingering death.
• Respecting Person's Choice: The essence of human life is to live a dignified life and to force the person to live in an undignified way is against the person’s choice. Thus, it expresses the choice of a person which is a fundamental principle.
• Treatment for others: In many developing and underdeveloped countries like India, there is a lack of funds. There is a shortage of hospital space. So, the energy of doctors and hospital beds can be used for those people whose lives can be saved instead of continuing the life of those who want to die. 
• Dignified Death: Article 21 of the Indian Constitution provides for living with dignity. A person has a right to live a life with at least minimum dignity and if that standard is falling below that minimum level then a person should be given a right to end his life. 
• Addressing Mental Agony: The motive behind this is to help rather than harm. It not only relieves the unbearable pain of a patient but also relieves the relatives of a patient from mental agony.