Euthanasia Request

Dear Client,
In India, Active Euthanasia is illegal, impermissible and a crime under the Indian Penal Code. Passive euthanasia (more commonly known as withholding and/or withdrawal of life support) has been legal in India in a limited set of circumstances since the Supreme Court's judgments passed in the Aruna Shanbaug case(2011), Common Cause case (2018), and an order modifying the guidelines issued in Common Cause case in 2023. The Court held that in passive euthanasia, the patient’s death is caused by the underlying disease itself on withdrawal of life-support measures, and active euthanasia is when lethal substances such as injections are administered and thereby cause the death directly. The procedural guidelines were streamlined and relaxed by the Supreme Court in January 2023 stating that patient must consent through a living will, and must be either terminally ill or in a vegetative state. A terminally ill person or a person in a permanent vegetative state can seek passive euthanasia to protect their right to a dignified death under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. To give effect to this right, the Supreme Court in the Common Cause case issued guidelines regarding Advance Directives (AD) which are documents that detail the choices of the patient regarding treatment decisions along with who would be competent to make decisions on their behalf in case of their inability to do so. Each Advance Directive (AD) is subject to the opinion of two medical boards, and the decisions of the boards can only be challenged via writ petition under Article 226. The current position puts the onus largely on the families of the patients, who are subjected to a rigorous bureaucratic process in order to give effect to the ADs, which are notarised documents signed and testified in front of a judicial magistrate. While these judgments outline detailed procedures for passive euthanasia and advance directives, the reality on the ground is very different, as a decision to end life is incredibly hard to take,