Aruna should be allowed to live: Docs

Aruna Shanbaug, 59, may be in a vegetable-like state but she is aware of her surroundings, smiles when she sees a familiar face and enjoys listening to Lord Krishna’s bhajans (hymns), said a senior doctor at KEM Hospital.

Aruna Shanbaug, 59, may be in a vegetable-like state but she is aware of her surroundings, smiles when she sees a familiar face and enjoys listening to Lord Krishna’s bhajans (hymns), said a senior doctor at KEM Hospital.

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“She can’t speak or move but she is normal. She should be allowed to live,” said the doctor, who visits Shanbaug every day.

“No one has the moral right to end a life. I hope the Supreme Court (SC) takes a pro-life decision,” said KEM Hospital Dean, Dr Sanjay Oak.

The SC on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre and Maharashtra government on a petition filed author, Pinky Virani, on behalf of Shanbaug. The former nurse, who was paralysed after a ward boy sodomised and assaulted her in 1973, has pleaded that she be allowed to die.

The three-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan was hesitant to entertain the petition but agreed to
issue notice after the petitioner’s advocate, Shekhar Naphade, explained that this was not the case of “euthanasia”.

“This is no human right. Her life is worse than animal existence,” the advocate told the court. “Is not keeping the woman in this persistent vegetative state by force feeding violative of her right to live with dignity?” he asked.

Shanbaug grew up in Karwar district, Karnataka, and joined KEM Hospital as a nurse in 1966. Seven years later, ward boy Sohanlal Valmiki sexually assaulted her and a dog chain used by him to pin her down damaged her brain cells. Valmiki was sentenced to seven years in jail.

Since the incident, Shanbaug has been lying on a bed in a tiny room outside ward number 4 on the hospital’s ground floor. The door to the room remains locked and a brown curtain covers it.

Nurses enter the room five times a day to feed and bathe Shanbaug. “She is fed by a spoon, not a tube,” said the senior doctor. “She is not on any medication or oxygen.”

“The hospital staffers do not consider Shanbaug a burden. She is a part of our family. We are happy to take care of her,” another doctor said.

Oak added that Shanbaug’s medical condition had been stable. “She has not had a bed sore even once in 36 years. The nurses have looked after her very well,” he said.