Decks cleared to implement passive euthanasia in pvt, govt hospitals in state

The Supreme Court had legalised passive euthanasia in November 2022. The ruling permitted the removal of life-prolonging supports, such as ventilators or artificial feeding tubes, from terminally ill patients allowing them to die naturally. However, the process could not be fully implemented due to the lack of standard protocols or procedural clarity.

MUMBAI: All public and private hospitals across the state must set up dedicated committees to facilitate passive euthanasia, following a state government resolution of July 17. The facility is currently available only in hospitals run by the state medical education department, such as the J J Hospital, in Mumbai, and Sassoon General Hospital, Pune.

Decks cleared to implement passive euthanasia in pvt, govt hospitals in state

The Supreme Court had legalised passive euthanasia in November 2022. The ruling permitted the removal of life-prolonging supports, such as ventilators or artificial feeding tubes, from terminally ill patients allowing them to die naturally. However, the process could not be fully implemented due to the lack of standard protocols or procedural clarity.

To iron out these issues, the state government has asked hospitals to set up two committees – primary and secondary – which will look at cases where relatives request for passive euthanasia or to implement requests scripted in living wills. Living wills let healthy people determine their end-of-life choices of medical treatment to be followed in case of a severe health crisis. The two committees (see box) will then scrutinise every application for living will or passive euthanasia, before implementation.

For Dr Nikhil Datar, a Mumbai-based gynaecologist and the moving force behind the implementation of the living will across the state, this marks as the penultimate closure of his long-drawn battle since December 2022, when he himself wrote his own living will and struggled to have it registered. Since then, he has fought his way through RTIs and courts to get governments to create systems to recognise and execute living wills.

The nuts and bolts still need to be worked, he said. “While the state wants one of the members to be a representative of the civil surgeon, it does not explain the credentials and procedures to nominate this representative on these committees,” explained Dr Datar.

“Moving the judiciary as well as the government machinery is a tedious and frustratingly slow task. But I can see major developments taking place from the top level. Hopefully, the full ecosystem around this cause will be built — the momentum is building,” he said looking back at his four year-long initiative to get citizens and families to decide how they choose to end their lives.

The right to die with dignity cannot just stay on paper — it has to be available on the ground, he says.