After the SC allowed passive euthanasia in the Harish Rana case, he died at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi on Tuesday. The 31-year-old Rana was in a vegetative state for 13 years after suffering severe head injuries in a fall from a fourth-floor balcony while he was a BTech student at Panjab University. The Supreme Court (SC) granted permission for the use of passive euthanasia on March 11. Following the judgement, Rana was shifted from his Ghaziabad home to the palliative care unit at AIIMS Delhi’s Dr BR Ambedkar Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital on March 14. A multidisciplinary team was formed, headed by Dr Seema Mishra, including specialists from neurosurgery, onco-anaesthesia, palliative medicine and psychiatry, reflecting the complexity and sensitivity of the procedure.
Rana’s artificial nutritional support was withdrawn following the SC’s decision. Rana’s plea for euthanasia had a long journey. The family first approached the Delhi High Court, where the plea was rejected by the court. They then moved to the apex court, after which two committees were formed to examine the case thoroughly. On the basis of the reports by the medical committees, the SC delivered its judgement on March 11. SC relied on the framework laid down in the Common Clause judgement, which recognises passive euthanasia as part of the right to die with dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Harish Rana’s case is the first such case in India of passive euthanasia. In 1973, at Mumbai’s KEM hospital, a 42-year old nurse Aruna Shanbaug was attacked and then raped by a ward attendant. Following the attack, she sustained severe brain injuries and went into coma. Later in 2009, a journalist Pinki Virani filed a petition in the SC of India on Aruna’s behalf, requesting to remove life support system of Aruna so that she can die naturally. The SC declared euthanasia a legal right but did not grant permission for Aruna’s euthanasia. After this Aruna Shanbaug died naturally in 2015.
