Euthanasia.

We all love our lives more than any other thing and the ultimate fear inside any human being is the fear of death. But it sometimes happens so that one develops a fear of remaining alive. It may happen due to any reason like ultimate pain and suffering, loss of essence of life, and many such to state. It only happens so that a person desires death over life, when his psychological condition worsens due to any reason or another. Cases of suicides are results of such psychologically unsound backdrops. Sometimes, situations arise when it happens so that staying alive becomes more painful than death and there comes into picture the concept of ‘Euthanasia’.
The Black’s Law Dictionary defines Euthanasia as “The act or practice of killing or bringing about the death of a person who suffers from an incurable disease or condition, esp. a painful one, for reasons of mercy.”
It has been a topic of continuous debates that whether or not the practice of euthanasia humane?
The people in for of practice of Euthanasia argue that mercy killing is because of pain and psychological & physical suffering and should be practiced and the utilitarian argument is that euthanasia is desirable because it relieves the misery of the terminally ill, however people in against argue that killing is morally wrong and is forbidden by religion and unexpected cures or procedures may be discovered to reverse the 'terminal' condition. Now that I have stated something about religion, let me further state that Buddhist, Shintoist, and Confucianist religions support Euthanasia. The concept of Euthanasia circles the patients in a persistent vegetative state who are awake but are not aware of self or the environment. Such patients have no higher brain functions and are kept 'alive' on artificial life support like respirators, heart-lung machine, and intra-venous nutrition and patients in terminal illness with a lot of pain, psychological suffering and loss of dignity. The patients may or may not be on life-support.
There are two types of Euthanasia, viz.
1.    Active Euthanasia: Active euthanasia is taking some action that leads to death like administration of a fatal injection.
2.    Passive Euthanasia: Passive euthanasia is an act of omission, i.e. letting a person die by taking no action to maintain life. It can include withholding or withdrawing water, food, drugs, medical or surgical procedures and resuscitation like CPR, and life support such as the respirator. The patient is then left to die from the underlying disease. Euthanasia can be by the patient or by the health care giver. Euthanasia can be voluntary when the patient takes the decision, non-voluntary when the decision is made by another person for an unconscious patient and involuntary when the decision is made contrary to the patient's wish.

Today Several states have begun to consider legislation that would legalize active voluntary euthanasia.
Medical science and technology have made great advancements in recent years. The medical profession has today more power over life and death than they had some decades ago. They have power to prolong life where life seems to have lost its meaning and have power to terminate life without suffering. There are many points of view on euthanasia, legal, social and compassionate.
The debate on Euthanasia has again become a live issue in India as the Supreme Court of India in 1994 passed a verdict that attempted suicide is not a crime. According to the Indian Penal code, which was mainly adopted from British Penal Code, attempted suicide was a crime, punishable with years of imprisonment. With the recent medical knowledge gained by researchers and the opinions expressed by eminent psychiatrists all over the world, the judges in their verdict were sympathetic to those who attempted suicide. The Supreme Court of India is the highest court, authorised to interpret the constitution of India for legal matters. They gave the verdict that attempting suicide is a mental derangement and hence not to be considered as a crime. Thus it can be interpreted that euthanasia is social approval for committing suicide or assisted suicide.
In the case of Aruna Shanbag, the question arose before the Supreme Court, whether permission to Euthanasia should be granted or not. Aruna Shanbag was a nurse from Haldipur, Shimoga, Karnataka. In 1973, while she was working at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai she was assaulted and sodomized by a Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki, a ward boy at the hospital which cause serious injuries to her brain and cervical cord due to which she became cortically blind and since that day she has been in a vegetative state for 36 years now. The doctors who have been treating her since the last 36 years said that Aruna Shanbag is brain dead and there is no chance of her getting recovered. She has been lying unconscious in a Mumbai Hospital for the last 36 years. The Supreme Court said that under the country’s law, they cannot allow a person to die and rejected the plea for euthanasia raised by one of Aruna’s friend Pinki Virani.
Not only in the case of Aruna Shanbag but also in a couple of other cases, The Supreme Court of India rejected the Euthanasia pleas on the ground that the law of the land doesn’t permit the court even to allow someone end his life.
If we think logically, we can infer that especially in a country like India, where there is already paucity of resources, patients who cannot be revived should be allowed euthanasia, because firstly this will end their personal pain and suffering and secondly it will end the suffering of his near and dear ones who feel it most challenging to see him in that stage, lying like a dead body with nothing more than the heart beating.
To conclude, the legislation should make laws governing the concept of Euthanasia, but such law should be so strict and strong that no one can misuse it in any way.

-Krishanu Ray