In Landmark First, Supreme Court Allows Passive Euthanasia For 32-Year-Old Man In Coma For Over 12 Years

New Delhi, March 11: In its first-ever order allowing passive euthanasia, the Supreme Court on Wednesday permitted the withdrawal of artificial life support of a 32-year-old man who has been in a comatose condition for more than 12 years.

Passive euthanasia is the intentional act of letting a patient die by withholding or withdrawing life support or the treatment necessary to keep him alive.

Ghaziabad native Harish Rana, who was a MarArticle 21. The court had held that passive euthanasia could be carried out using "Advance Medical Directives".

On January 24, 2023, a five-judge Constitution Bench modified the 2018 Euthanasia Guidelines to ease the process of granting passive euthanasia to terminally ill patients.

Hearing the writ petition of Rana's family, the top court had earlier expressed its desire to meet the parents of the 32-year-old man. It had perused a report on Rana's medical history filed by a secondary medical board of doctors from the AIIMS-Delhi and remarked that it was a "sad" report.

The primary medical board, upon examining the patient's condition, had stressed the negligible chance of his recovery.

The top court, on December 11, noted that according to the report of the primary medical board, the man is in a "pathetic condition".

According to the guidelines issued by the apex court in 2023, a primary and a secondary medical board will have to be formed for an expert opinion on the withdrawal of artificial life support for a patient in a vegetative state.

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