Are we ready for euthanasia?

 

 

Of late, the debate on mercy killing or euthanasia seems to have resurfaced. With UK and the US legalising the practice (albeit to a few states only), the buzz about euthanasia is catching up in India too. A few months ago, Supreme Court denied mercy killing for a 59 -years-old lady Aruna Shanbagh, who was laying unconscious in a K.E.M Hospital Mumbai (after being sexually assaulted). Similarly, the Patna High Court dismissed Tarakeshwar Chandravanshi's request of mercy killing his 25-year-old wife and in another plea the Kerala High Court rejected the request of BK Pillai.

In India, where the right of life under article 21 of the Constitution is considered the utopia of fundamental rights, the whole issue about right to death would not fetch much acceptability. However, it is not about the issue of legalising euthanasia but actually about the fact – is India ready for such concept per se?

The real concern here is about the abuse of such a law (if implemented). Families today not only face financial crunch because of a patient but also find it tough to comfortably accommodate such family member. Moreover neither insurance cover such illness for long term nor does the state provide the facility of palliative care centres, and a few that can be spotted in some metros are luxury and they are for the financially well-off population only. Even the devious relatives restore all kinds of tactics (be it legal or be it illegal) to grab the property of person on death-bed. Given so many social evils in practice, the abuse of such law would find many takers and would eventually led to 'forced' euthanasia.

Talking about policy measures, no concrete policy has still been designed to support the lives and medical expenses of an elderly member of a family from the government's end. Unlike other countries, the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) provides merely Rs 400 per month (for the BPL population) and most of the time IGNOAPS does not even reach the beneficiaries. The money provided under such schemes is at no point of time sufficient enough to cover the cost of medical expenses.

In order to legalise such laws in future, the policy makers need to introduce a mechanism that will make sure that it is practiced only for genuine cases and not let people get away after a cold-blooded murder in veil of mercy killing. Even before this is done, the existing pension and state insurance schemes need to be re-considered, so that a retired and an elderly member of the family can support his medical expenditure to some extent. Otherwise, due to lack of money and resources, people would rely on such practice even for curable diseases. Moreover, where a majority of patients die without even receiving basic medical treatment, the question of euthanasia seems futile.

In the presence of all these numerous bottlenecks — from property disputes to policy measures to crippled health infrastructure — the legalisation of euthanasia would gift the lawbreakers one more legal loophole. Currently, the most required things are a universal health insurance and pension scheme clubbed with proper care centres for discarded members of families. The concept of euthanasia today seems to be a distant dream, and for good, let it be a distant dream for some time...