E-Paper
Give medical help or allow mercy killing: Man to SC
Unable to take care of two children suffering from muscular dystrophy, a 58-year-old man, resident of Dharavi in Mumbai.
Unable to take care of two children suffering from muscular dystrophy, a 58-year-old man, resident of Dharavi in Mumbai, has petitioned the Supreme Court seeking permission of "mercy killing" for the family.
"I have no way to live in this world...Please help me with medical help to take care of them or grant me mercy killing. Or (else) I have no idea except to commit suicide," says Mukhtar Ahmed Shaikh, the petitioner and the only bread-winner in the family.
Shaikh's son Mehfooz (26) and daughter Khurshida (30), are afflicted with muscular dystrophy, a disease in which patient's muscles start degenerating. Over a period of time, the disease paralyses entire body of the person.
Mukhtar Shaikh works as a labourer at a private firm and earns Rs 2000 per month, his petition says.
"Two of my children suffer from muscular dystrophy. These patients can not escape death...," the petition reads, stating further that Shaikh has no money to pay for the costly treatment for the two daughters.
Describing the miseries that the family goes through daily, the petition says: "I am staying in a 90 sq ft room. We don't have toilet...I can not explain the hardship in taking care of them."
