posted March 07, 2011 10:51 PM            

..Supreme Court rejects Aruna Shanbaug's
euthanasia plea

India News – Mon, Mar 7, 2011 10:55 AM IST
New Delhi:

The Supreme Court today rejected an euthanasia plea on behalf of Aruna Shanbaug, who has been in a 'persistent vegetative state' in Mumbai's King Edward Memorial Hospital for over 37 years.

Even though the apex court laid down guidelines for euthanasia in extreme cases of terminally ill patients, it said no to plea on behalf of Aruna Shanbaug.

A bench of justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra dismissed the plea filed on behalf of KEM hospital nurse Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug, saying that while active euthanasia (mercy killing) was illegal, yet "passive euthanasia" can be permissible in exceptional circumstances.
The apex court said that as per the facts and circumstances of Aruna's case, medical evidence and other material suggest that the victim need not be subjected to euthanasia.

The bench, however, said since there is no law presently in the country on euthanasia, mercy killing of terminally ill patient "under passive euthanasia doctrine can be resorted to in exceptional cases."

The bench clarified that until Parliament enacts a law, its judgement on active and passive euthanasia will be in force.

The Story of Aruna Shanbaug (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

Aruna Shanbaug is a nurse from Haldipur, Uttar Kannada, Karnataka in India. In 1973, while working at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, she was sexually assaulted by Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki, a ward boy at the hospital. Walmiki was motivated partly by resentment for being ordered about and castigated by Shanbaug.

On the night of 27 November 1973 he attacked her while she was changing clothes in the hospital basement. He choked her with a dog chain and sodomized her. The asphyxiation cut off oxygen supply to her brain resulting in brain stem contusion injury and cervical cord injury apart from leaving her cortically blind.

The initial medical examination to verify rape as the crime found that Aruna had no vaginal bruises and her hymen was intact. She was menstruating on the day and therefore the rapist did not penetrate her. Subsequent medical reports proved that she bled for days together from the anus.

The police case was registered as a case of robbery and attempted murder on account of the concealment of anal rape by the doctors under the instructions of the Dean of KEM, the late Dr. Deshpande perhaps to avoid the social rejection which might break her impending marriage to Dr. Sundeep Sardesai.

Since the assault, she has been in a vegetative state. On 24th January 2011, the Supreme Court of India responded to the plea for Euthanasia filed by Aruna's friend journalist Pinki Virani, by setting up a medical panel to examine her.

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posted March 07, 2011 11:00 PM            

Her condition has been described as semi-comatose and vegetative. But the Supreme Court today ruled that euthanasia is not a permissible option for Ms Shanbaug - at least not on the basis of the current appeal. "We have no indication of Aruna Shanbaug's views or wishes," the judges said.

A petition for euthanasia was first filed for Ms Shanbaug by Pinky Virani, a journalist who has written a book on the woman who she says is being forced to live her life stripped of basic dignity. The Supreme Court praised Ms Virani's concern, but ruled that her relationship with the patient does not give her right to petition on Ms Shanbaug's behalf for a mercy killing. The only party that can appeal for euthanasia for Ms Shanbaug is the staff of KEM Hospital which has nursed her since she was discovered in the basement, an iron chain around her neck, 11 hours after she had been sodomized by a ward boy who she had scolded for stealing food that was meant for stray animals adopted by the hospital. The chain used to strangle her had cut off the supply of oxygen to her brain. The damage was irreversible.

Ms Shanbaug has, however, changed forever India's approach to the contentious issue of euthanasia. The verdict on her case today allows passive euthanasia contingent upon circumstances. So other Indians can now argue in court for the right to withhold medical treatment - take a patient off a ventilator, for example, in the case of an irreversible coma. Today's judgement makes it clear that passive euthanasia will "only be allowed in cases where the person is in persistent vegetative state or terminally ill." (Read: What is passive euthanasia?)

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In each case, the relevant high court will evaluate the merits of the case, and refer the case to a medical board before deciding on whether passive euthanasia can apply. And till Parliament introduces new laws on euthanasia, it is Ms Shanbaug's case that is to be used as a point of reference by other courts.

The judge who says that a CD he reviewed of Ms Shanbaug shows "She is certainly not brain-dead. She expresses her likes or dislike with sounds and movements. She smiles when given her favourite food...she gets disturbed when many people enter her room and calms down when touched gently."

Ms Virani issued this statement after his verdict. "Because of the Aruna Shanbaug case, the Supreme Court of India has permitted Passive Euthanasia, which means that Aruna's state will worsen with persistent diarrhoea as her body cannot handle much of that being put through the pipe; no catheter to catch body fluids and waste matter which excrete themselves; lengthening response times due to a 'sinking'. But, because of this woman who has never received justice, no other person in a similar position will have to suffer for more than three-and-a-half decades."

At the hospital which is Ms Shanbuag's home, nurses celebrated the verdict by distributing sweets. We will share a small piece with her to, said one of them. The medical attention they have lavished on Ms Shanbug was praised by the judge today in his verdict.

But in an allusion that suggests he was aware of exactly how tough Ms Shanbaug's life is, he quoted the poet Mirza Ghalib too. "Marte hain aarzoo mein marne ki...maut aati hai par nahin aati (I die for Death, Death knocks, but comes not...)".

posted March 07, 2011 11:08 PM            

Aruna in her hay days.

posted March 07, 2011 11:16 PM            

Aruna’s Story by Pinki Virani

This is yet another remarkable book by Pinki Virani, based on the true story of Aruna Shanbaug. I had vaguely heard about this case. This case received much media glare due to its relevance in the legal debates on “mercy killing” or “euthanasia”.

That one day changed the course of her entire life. This story dates back to November 1973. Due to strangling, the oxygen supply to her brain had cut off and she lost power of expression and speech, and even eyesight. In just one twist of fate, her seemingly envious life, turned into an utter waste.

Surprisingly, Sohanlal had to serve only a 7 year term in jail for assault and robbery, and never for sexual molestation, rape of ‘unnatural offence’. There’s not much of his perspective in the book. It is said at the end of the book that after he served in jail, he was working in some hospital in Delhi.

You don’t know what to feel when you read her tormentor got away with just 7 years of imprisonment and on the other hand Aruna Shanbaug lay in vegetative state for the rest of her life. Due to the kindness of the staff of KEM Hospital, she is taken care of by them, but her own family abandons her. It seems that they leave Aruna to her state because they were not well-off and did not want an extra burden when they were already struggling to make their ends meet.

posted March 08, 2011 04:00 AM            

"Sometimes I wonder what will happen to me should such a state befall me. I know my mother will care for me as long as she can. Will my brother be able to care for me apart from his family callings? My fiance?? Some day out of social/familial pressures and the will to move on with life he will get married to someone……thats what even I would want him to do. But will he still look after me…..for how long? How long will his wife and children allow him to? Aruna has fellow nurses to look after her….but if something like this befalls me during my stint as an intern…..certainly I don’t expect any interns to care for me…….."

"I use this opportunity to say that should I become a vegetable at any stage of time, please give me my right to die….don’t keep me alive just to make me a burden on the future……"