Euthanasia-I want to die…

“I want to die, please give me death”
I heard these lines as soon as I turned on the television today morning. Apart from usual murder echoes, rape cases and theft scenes, this news obviated me from changing the channel. The above quotation was of a constable in U.P who broke his back bone, laying him bedridden for lifetime, while fighting the naksalites in UP. As he was already brassed off with his life, UP police added flesh to the bone by presenting him with transfer orders. Previously he was crippled physically but the transfer orders daunted him mentally and he broke up saying “I want to die, please give me death.”
This whole incident brought to my mind “Euthanasia” plea by Pinki Virani that was turned down by Supreme Court in famous Aruna Shanbhaug case.

Aruna Shanbhaug Case
Aruna Shanbhaug was a junior nurse in KEM hospital Mumbai, basically from Karnataka, when she was sexually assaulted by a ward boy, Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki, on the night of 27 November 1973. He sodomized her by smothering with a dog chain. This all brought ischemia to the brain and injured her cervical cord leaving her cortically blind, paralyzed and somnolent. Till that date she has been in permanent vegetative state for 37 years. Her friend and lawyer, Pinki Virani made the plea to end Aruna’s life, termed as euthanasia, but it was turned down by SC on 7th march 2011. SC described active euthanasia to be morally and ethically illegitimate but in turn gave green signal to passive euthanasia (legally in papers). I’ll tell you later as I move on, why I wrote that in brackets.

Euthanasia
You can have a detailed study of Euthanasia on http://www.euthanasia.com .Just to summarize euthanasia also termed as “mercy killing”. Netherlands was the first country where euthanasia was legalized.
Here is the map showing the countries where it is fully legalized and where still the bill is under construction.

Active, passive, voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary are its various arms.
Active Euthanasia is the condition of killing the person by giving poisonous substances.
Passive Euthanasia is the act of killing someone by cessation of the common treatments which the person is undergoing that are must for his/her survival.
Voluntary E. or assisted suicide is conducted with the consent of the patient.
Non Voluntary E. is where patient can’t provide the informed consent as in children. It is illegal worldwide.
Involuntary E. is killing against the will of the patient.

Euthanasia in India-“What I feel”
(The views expressed here are my personnel and aren’t meant to hurt anyone, if so than I apologize for the same)
After hearing the plea of Pinki Virani, SC of India although legalized passive euthanasia but I think it is already in vogue in India looking into the jinxed circumstances of wretched people. I respect the feelings of her colleague nurses who are giving their full support and loving care as much as they can for 4 decades. But for a moment just portray in your mind a BPL lady or even a lower middle class women in place of Aruna Shanbhaug (GOD forbids anything like this happen to anyone). Ask yourself now that can she afford the hospital bills and treatment expenditures for as long as 37 years? If she anyhow does manage to, than no hospital can allow the bed to be tied up to a single patient for as long as 37 years. Her care taker would rather prefer discharging her off, leaving everything for the almighty. They will take the mishap as their fate or wrong ‘karmas’ of their previous evils, which is a common perception in Indian society. Finally without medications (which she can’t afford) she is ought to die.
Isn’t the above situation “Passive Euthanasia”? Or you can suggest me another term if you have it in your Gyrus.
I know few backward areas in India where people feel that its better dying than getting ill as they can’t afford the treatment that empties their pocket leaving them financially crippled for whole life.
Really our law and order has gone blind as they can’t see the law they passed on 7th march 2011 (Passive Euthanasia) is not new and quite deep rooted in Indian society.
I bet if Aruna Shanbhaug could speak, then she would have said,
“I want to die, please give me death”

Tags: aruna shanbaugh, euthanasia, mercy killing, pinki virani, valmiki