Explained: What is assisted suicide? Is it allowed in India?

Film director Jean-Luc Godard, who spearheaded the revolutionary French New Wave of cinema, died by assisted suicide on Tuesday. The celebrated filmmaker’s death has put the focus on assisted suicide, which is legal in Switzerland in some circumstances. The concept of “assisted death” remains an alien concept in India. There is no law in the country with regard to euthanasia apart from the Supreme Court (SC) directives.

In 2018, the SC allowed passive euthanasia, which is legal in a few countries. Passive euthanasia is the withdrawal of nutrition and water and withholding of life-saving treatment, thus facilitating the person’s end, and relieving them from suffering. Active euthanasia involves a physician, who actively assists suicide through an injection of lethal substances to accelerate death. Active euthanasia remains illegal in India.

What is assisted suicide or euthanasia?

Assisted suicide is defined by the British National Health Service as an act of deliberately helping or assisting a person as they prepare to kill themselves. It is also known as euthanasia, which means to end a person’s life to relieve them from suffering. Voluntary euthanasia is legal in countries like Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada, and the Netherlands, and assisted suicide, if within the prescribed rules, is legal in Switzerland, Germany, and the US states of Oregon, Vermont, California, Montana, Colorado and Washington D.C.

In Switzerland, assisted suicide is permitted if offered without a selfish motive to a person with the decision-making capacity to end their own suffering. A 2016 French law provides that doctors can keep terminally ill patients sedated before death but stops short of allowing assisted suicide.

Where is euthanasia legal?

Euthanasia is legal in seven countries — Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain — plus several states in Australia. Other jurisdictions, including several US states, permit assisted suicide in which patients take the lethal drug themselves, typically in a drink prescribed by a doctor.

Also Read: Jean-Luc Godard: An auteur and provocateur, adrift in the cosmos

Euthanasia in India: A Brief History

Euthanasia became a point of discussion in 2011 after the Supreme Court turned down a plea of author and activist Pinki Virani for stopping life support to Aruna Shanbaug — a nurse who spent nearly 42 years in a vegetative state after she was sexually assaulted in 1973. In a landmark judgment, the SC provided a set of guidelines to administer passive euthanasia to Shanbaug. However, Virani’s petition was declined because the SC refused to count her as “next friend” of the victim. Instead, the court found Mumbai’s KEM hospital staffers as “next friend” who wanted Shanbaug, who died in 2015, to be alive. Her case led to judgements which have advanced the discourse on the withdrawal of futile treatment for terminal illness in India. Aruna survived for so long because of the extraordinary care she received for 42 years from nursing colleagues.

Does the right to live under article 21 of the Indian Constitution include the right to die too? This is a key question that has been debated by the Indian judiciary from time to time through various cases. It was first discussed in the case of P Rathinam V Union of India in 1994. The judiciary debated whether the punishment for attempting to commit suicide (section 309 of IPC) was right or wrong. In this case, the SC upheld that the liberty to die comes under the liberty to live. Thus, section 309 of the IPC was observed to be constitutionally invalid.

Two years later, the Supreme Court overruled this judgment in Gian Kaur V State of Punjab case and stated that the right to life enshrined in the Constitution does not mandate the right to die because suicide or someone choosing to die is an unnatural way of putting an end to one’s life. SC brought the validity of section 309 back and made an attempt to suicide an offence again.

In 2018, the SC upheld that the right to die with dignity forms a part of the right to live with dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution. This judgment came up in a writ petition filed by Common Cause, a society which argued for making euthanasia legal. The Supreme Court approved one’s right to choose a dignified death if he/she is incapable of living a decent life due to terminal illness.

“Continuing treatment against the wishes of a patient is not only a violation of the principle of informed consent, but also of bodily privacy and bodily integrity that have been recognised as a facet of privacy by this Court.” This observation made by the Supreme Court in 2018 in Common Cause V Union of India continues to be the law of the land as the Parliament has not yet made any statute about euthanasia.

France to debate assisted suicide

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday announced a national debate on end-of-life options that will include exploring the possibility of legalizing assisted suicide Macron said in a written statement that a panel of citizens would work on the issue in coordination with health care workers over the coming months, while local debates are organized in French regions.

The government plans to hold parallel discussions with lawmakers from all political parties to find the broadest consensus, with the aim of implementing changes next year, the president’s statement said. While campaigning for his successful re-election this year, Macron promised to open the debate in France, suggesting he was personally in favour of legalising physician-assisted suicide. The current law allows patients to request “deep, continuous sedation altering consciousness until death” but only when their conditions are likely to lead to a quick death.

(Suicides can be prevented. For help please call Suicide Prevention Helplines: Neha Suicide Prevention Centre – 044-24640050; Aasara helpline for suicide prevention, emotional support & trauma help — +91-9820466726; Kiran, Mental health rehabilitation — 1800-599-0019, Disha 0471- 2552056, Maithri 0484 2540530,  TN health helpline 104 and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050)