The Supreme Court on Monday is slated to hear a PIL seeking a right to passive euthanasia for those persons afflicted with rabies.A two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran, decided to accept a petition filed in 2019 by an NGO, All Creatures Great and Small.
In its plea, the NGO prayed that a procedure should be laid down for rabies patients to allow them or their guardians to opt for the assistance of physicians for assisted dying or passive euthanasia.
The petition was filed by an NGO after the top court’s verdict in March 2018, when a five-judge Constitution bench ruled that the right to life includes the right to die and legalised passive euthanasia. The court had allowed the creation of a ‘living will,’ permitting terminally ill patients or those in a persistent vegetative state (PVS), with no hope of recovery, to refuse medical treatment or life support, providing them with a dignified exit.
In 2020, a notice was issued to the Centre by the Supreme Court while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) demanding responses from the ministries of health and environment.
According to a petition by the NGO ACGAS through its senior lawyer, Sonia Mathur, “with a 100% fatality rate, rabies is potentially more torturous and harrowing to succumb to than other forms of ailments.” In its petition, it also stated how the disease can uniquely result in patients being shackled and tied to their beds, with serious restrictions on freedom, movement, dignity, and integrity.
The NGO urged the apex court to consider the “exceptional/violent nature of the disease and the absence of a cure,” arguing that these factors made rabies a separate case deserving of special consideration.
