The article, “In search of gentle death” (May 4), made one recollect an Indian instance — of staff nurse Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug of King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, lying bedridden and in a vegetative state for over three decades after she was molested by a hospital ward boy. Journalist Pinki Virani’s desperate attempt to obtain the Supreme Court of India’s permission for passive euthanasia failed miserably. We expect both the medical and legal field to evolve new approaches so that terminally-ill patients can be allowed to die without suffering.
V. Lakshmanan,
Tirupur, Tamil Nadu
The ruling by a U.K. court to withdraw treatment to the baby on the reasoning that the child’s ailment has no proven treatment defies logic and falls short of being labelled as unethical in spite of the purported noble intentions of the court. In view of its oddity, the judgment may even be welcomed by legal eagles disconnected with the emotions of close ones losing a dear child. The judgment also goes to show how far courts in general can go in exercising their discretion in case the rights of a person are not protected by the government in spite of provisions to the effect in the Constitution.
V. Subramanian,
Chennai
