India court rejects Aruna Shanbaug euthanasia plea Skip to main content

India court rejects Aruna Shanbaug euthanasia plea

Aruna Shanbaug Ms Shanbaug worked as a nurse in the hospital where she was attacked

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India's Supreme Court has rejected a plea to end the life of a woman who has been in a vegetative state since 1973.
The court said Aruna Shanbaug should live because medical and other evidence suggested that she need not be "subjected to euthanasia".
Ms Shanbaug suffered severe brain damage and has been paralysed since a brutal rape in 1973.
Although this call was rejected, the court did sanction "passive euthanasia" in other cases in some circumstances.
Previously all forms of euthanasia were illegal in India. But in a complex judgement, the court said the withdrawal of food from a patient could be considered if doctors and nurses filed a petition in court.
The case for Aruna Shanbaug was filed by a journalist who had written a book about her.
In her petition, Pinki Virani said that Ms Shanbaug had been in a "persistent vegetative state" for 37 years and was "virtually a dead person".
It said that Ms Shanbaug's parents died many years ago and other relatives had not maintained contact with her.
Patients in a vegetative state are awake, not in a coma, but have no awareness because of severe brain damage.
Condition 'deteriorated'
Ms Shanbaug is fed twice a day by nurses looking after her at the KEM hospital in Mumbai.
Ms Virani wanted the court to issue instructions to "forthwith ensure that no food is fed" to Ms Shanbaug.
In January, the court asked the doctors to submit a report on Ms Shanbaug's medical condition after examining her.
In her book, Ms Virani describes how Ms Shanbaug's condition has deteriorated over the years.
"Her teeth had decayed causing her immense pain. Food was completely mashed and given in semi-solid form. She choked on liquids."
But hospital authorities told the court that Ms Shanbaug "accepts food in normal course and responds by facial expressions" and responds to "commands intermittently by making sounds".
Ms Shanbaug was raped by a hospital sweeper at the KEM hospital on 27 November 1973. The sweeper tried to strangle her.
Her attacker was sentenced to seven years in prison for attempting to murder and rob Ms Shanbaug.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12662124
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