The Delhi High Court on Thursday permitted a woman, who had sought to stop her friend from travelling to Switzerland to undergo euthanasia on account of his long-term debilitating sickness, to withdrew her petition.
Justice Yashwant Varma, before whom the petition came up for hearing, allowed the 49-year-old woman to withdrawn her plea and also directed the court registry to redact the particulars of the friend from court records.
“I would like to withdraw this petition as I came to know that [my friend] is deeply traumatised after hearing about it. I am afraid that the very purpose of filing this writ may go in vain if I proceed,” the counsel, representing the woman, told the High Court as soon as the case came up for hearing.
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
In her petition filed last week, through advocate Subash Chandran K.R., the woman, a resident of Bangalore, sought direction to the Centre to not grant “emigration clearance” to her close friend, in his late 40s and diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, to travel for physician-assisted suicide.
Medical board
The woman, in her petition, sought for constitution of a medical board to examine the medical condition of her friend and also provide necessary medical assistance considering his peculiar health condition.
The plea stated that the most common symptom of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis is extreme tiredness and it can affect anyone, including children. “Studies say it is more common in women, and tends to develop in mid-40s. His symptoms started in 2014 and his condition deteriorated over the past eight years. He is now completely bed-bound and just able to walk a few steps inside home,” the woman said in her plea.
Finally, this year the man decided to go for euthanasia through Dignitas, an organisation in Zurich, Switzerland, which provides physician-assisted suicide. The woman said her friend had travelled to Zurich for the first round of psychological evaluation in June 2022.
She said the application was accepted by Dignitas and the first evaluation was approved. He is now awaiting the final decision by end of August, 2022.
The woman stressed that there was no financial constrains for providing her friend with better treatments within India or abroad. “But he is now adamant on his decision to go for euthanasia which affects the lives of his age-old parents miserably,” she urged. She submitted that there still persists a ray of hope for the betterment of his condition.
2 types of euthanasia
Active euthanasia entails an affirmative action of use of lethal substances or forces to cause the intentional death of a person by direct intervention, e.g., a lethal injection given to a person with terminal cancer who is in terrible agony.
Passive euthanasia, on the other hand, entails withdrawing of life-support measures or withholding of medical treatment for continuance of life, e.g., withholding of antibiotics in case of a patient where death is likely to occur as a result of not giving the said antibiotics or removal of the heart lung machine from a patient in coma.
In India active euthanasia is illegal and a crime under Section 302 (murder) or Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) Indian Penal Code. Physician assisted suicide is a crime under Section 306 IPC (abetment to suicide).
In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court had on March 9, 2018 allowed passive euthanasia in India noting that the right to die with dignity was a fundamental right.
