'Can't Keep Him Like This': Court On Man's Plea To End Son's Life Support

An elderly couple has approached the Supreme Court with a petition seeking passive euthanasia for their 31-year-old son, who has been in a vegetative state for the past 12 years after suffering serious injuries in a fall. The court today went through his medical report and said the findings are "very sad".

Harish Rana was a student of Punjab University and fell off the fourth floor of a paying guest accommodation in 2013, suffering serious injuries. He has been on life support for 12 years now.

Rana's father, Ashok Rana, approached the court, seeking euthanasia for his son, after which a medical board was asked to submit a report on his condition.

On going through the report, a bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice KV Viswanathan said the findings are "very sad", but added that "we can't keep the boy like this for all time to come".

The bench said it will speak to the parents next month and the counsels who can study the report and help the court pass final orders.

Passive euthanasia, which means the withdrawal of life support, is allowed in India only after the Supreme Court studies the opinions of two medical boards on the patient's condition.

The primary board earlier said the chances of Rana's recovery from his current state are negligible. For the past 12 years, he has been confined to a bed with a tracheostomy tube for respiration and a gastrojejunostomy tube for feeding. Photographs showed has has suffered huge bed sores.

After the primary medical board's report, the court asked AIIMS Delhi to set up a secondary medical board. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati today told the court that the secondary board's report is in. The court then went through it and made the observations. The bench said a stage has been reached where "we will have to take a final call".

Passive euthanasia in exceptional circumstances was legalised in India in the Aruna Shanbaug vs Union of India judgment in 2011. Shanbaug, a nurse, remained in a vegetative state for over four decades after a sexual assault that left her paralysed and inflicted serious brain damage. The court had rejected a petition to remove life support after noting that medical evidence suggests she should live. The judgment, however, eased the norms for passive euthanasia, allowing it in exceptional cases.