Harish Rana Euthanasia: Issue of euthanasia raised in Rajya Sabha, IUML MP demands to make law
Delhi. In the Rajya Sabha on Monday, a member of IUML demanded the government to enact a law for the care of seriously ill and incurable patients and a dignified end to their lives. He said that despite several reports of the Law Commission and directions of the Supreme Court in the last two decades, Parliament has not yet made any law on this issue. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MP Haris Biran urged the government to bring in the ‘Medical Treatment of Terminally Ill Patients (End of Life Care) Act’.
Biran, representing Kerala in the Upper House, also demanded that mandatory arrangements should be made for such incurable patients in every district hospital and primary health center of the country, so that they can be given dignified and humane care. His comment was in the context of the Supreme Court order given last week, in which the court had given permission to remove the life saving equipment of a person named Harish Rana.
Rana has been in a permanent vegetative state for the last 13 years after accidentally falling from a height in 2013. According to Biran, it is said that the bench of Justice Jamshed Pardiwala and Justice KV Vishwanathan, while delivering the verdict, had told the patient’s parents that they were not abandoning their son, but were giving him an opportunity to live with dignity. The MP said that legislative action has not been taken on this issue for a long time.
He said that the 196th report of the Law Commission came in 2006 in which the subject of passive euthanasia was reviewed in detail and a draft law was also proposed, but the Parliament did not take any action on it. He said that later in 2011, the Supreme Court intervened to frame guidelines in the ‘Aruna Shanbaug’ case.
After this, in the 241st report of the Law Commission in 2012, a draft bill was again suggested. Biran said that in the ‘Common Cause’ case in 2018, a Constitution bench had issued guidelines recognizing the right to dignity of life and clearly stated that these would be applicable only until the Parliament makes a law on the subject. These guidelines were revised in 2023.
He said that in the recent judgment also the Supreme Court has expressed the hope that the Parliament will make a law on this subject. Biran raised the question that for how long can the Supreme Court give its ruling on the basis of Article 21 of the Constitution? He said that the interpretation of the right to life under the Constitution has been extended by the courts to the right to die with dignity also.
The IUML member also drew attention to the financial challenges associated with treating seriously ill patients. He said that people have to bear more than 65 percent of the total expenditure on health services in the country, which places a huge financial burden on families. Giving the example of the community-based ‘Palliative Care Programme’ running in Kerala since 2008, he said that it can become a model for the entire country. According to him, every gram panchayat of the state has been taken under the ambit of this program and more than 500 non-governmental organizations have also been included in it.
Comments are closed.