Supreme Court dismisses Aruna Shanbaug's euthanasia plea

Aruna Shanbaug will live, the Supreme Court ruled Monday on the case of the nurse who has been lying in a 'persistent vegetative state' in Mumbai's KEM hospital for over 37 years. A Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra said passive euthanasia would occur when medical treatment is withheld or withdrawn leading to the death of a terminally ill person. In such cases, a doctor does not administer a substance or any treatment meant to deliberately end a person's life. Instead, a doctor will agree to withdraw medical treatment when it is clear that a person will not recover from a terminal illness.