Moving Towards A More Humane Environment

Euthanasia is a term derived from ancient Greek and means a good death. India lacks a clear, practical and legally sound process for both living wills and medical futility resolution. Without these a peaceful passing is usually not possible.Time to ActAfter the Aruna Shanbaug case, a draft on EOLC was submitted to the Centre but no legislation has been passed. The road ahead is spelt out with as much clarity as is possible.Physician assisted death is against the will of God. But the most important task is to tackle the public stigma around any discussions on death, which seems to be common in other Asian societies as well. The last Japanese emperor, Hirohito, died without knowing that he had cancer. They can also identify who (health care power-of-attorney) will make these decisions, together with their doctors, in unclear situations. It’s time we begin moving towards a more humane environment where patients and families decide on their End Of Life Care plan.

The Odisha villager was asking to be killed, presumably by a lethal injection. He is a member of the steering committee of End-of-life-care in India Task Force (ELICIT)). In fact, the gas chambers of the Jewish holocaust were first tried out on 70,000 such unfortunates. His petition to the President of India asking to be put to death caught the public eye. Among the services that are usually missing, is palliative care (PC) a new medical discipline, which looks at relief rather than cure. In those countries where EOLC and PC are natural parts of the medical system, discussions with your doctors and trained counsellors begin cotton athletic tape for sale as soon as terminal illness is identified.Common BeliefsMany consider death as a taboo subject.Both these cases are linked by the term “euthanasia”. And if there is no one in charge, the default medical option is to do everything possible for cure and to save life. PVS is a rare and stable situation where courts can be involved.

All doctors need to be aware of the basic principles of End of Life Care (EOLC) and PC. These orders only become operative when the patient is unconscious or can no longer make his/her own choices. Some people do this even when they are in good health as Michelle and Barack Obama did during his presidency. Medical associations are coming together to see that this happens and governments need to come forward and support this. She finally passed away in May 2015. For India, this is still a bridge too far. They called this “passive euthanasia“ and this abominable euphemism was the beginning of a slippery moral slope. Our training focuses only on cure and not the care that is necessary when cure is not possible. In 2011, the Supreme Court of India examined the plea filed by social activist Pinki Virani, asking for her to be allowed to die.