The Recent Supreme Court guidelines on “living will” or Euthanasia

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court made a statement that it will not review its 2018 judgment on passive Euthanasia, instead, it will only make guidelines on “living will”, an advance medical directive on end-of-life treatment more workable. 2018, an order of the Apex court on passive euthanasia came out and after that, it was recognized the right to die with dignity as a fundamental right and also an aspect of Article 21 (right to life) notwithstanding people wanting to get a “living will” registered have been facing problems due to cumbersome guidelines.

A five-judge constitution bench which was headed by Justice K M Joseph said during Wednesday’s hearing that a clarification made by the court should not lead to more confusion instead of clearing the existing ones. He said, “we will simply make it a little bit more workable; we can’t be reviewing it. We kept the matter in open court. There is nothing to be reserved. We cannot be reopening the whole thing, “the bench, also comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy, and Justice C T Ravikumar said.

Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj contended the present proceedings fall within a very narrow compass. “Everything has already been laid down. Whatever are the practical difficulties that vacuum has to be filled in”, he said. Aravind P Datar, a senior advocate appearing for The Indian Society for Critical Care, told the court that he has submitted a chart elaborating on the areas which are unworkable. He also said that the suggestions that were put forth have been discussed with doctors and there is a complete report from the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR).

The hearing remained inconclusive and will resume on Thursday.

A brief history on the previous discussions on Euthanasia

When it’s almost more than four years after its landmark order on passive euthanasia, the top court on Tuesday said that it is for the legislature to enact a law for terminally ill patients wanting to stop treatment but agreed to modify its 2018 guidelines on “living will”.

Observing that the legislature is much more endowed with skills and sources of knowledge to enact a relevant law, the apex court said it will limit itself to improving the guidelines it had laid down on “living will”. The bench said that there can only be a little tweaking of the guidelines or else it will become a review of its own 2018 judgment.

The directives and guidelines will remain in force till Parliament brings a legislation in the field,” it had said. The verdict had come on a PIL filed by NGO Common Cause seeking recognition of the living will be made by terminally-ill patients for passive euthanasia.