Yes, Supreme Court on 9th March, 2018 in Common Cause (A Regd. Society) versus Union of India had held that Right to Die is a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The highest Judicial Authority has said that Passive Euthanasia for terminally ill patients is allowed within the meaning of right to live with dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Debate on euthanasia has been going on for considerable period all over the world and the Judiciary has spent enormous time on studying the need and the concept of euthanasia in the light of prevalent conditions in the country. A large number of cases at every corner of the world have explored the boundaries of current legal distinctions drawn between legitimate and non-legitimate instances of ending life.
“Euthanasia” is a Greek word which means ‘good death’ or ‘seeking mercy killing’ in order to relieve a patient suffering from chronic pain. The European Association of Palliative Care (EPAC) has clarified that “medicalised killing of a person without the person’s consent, whether non-voluntary (where the person is not in a position to give consent) or involuntary (against the person’s will) tantamounts to murder. So, euthanasia can be voluntary only”.
The Supreme Court of India earlier in Aruna Ramachandra Shahbaugh v. Union of India has clarified that active euthanasia involves taking specific steps like injecting the patient with Sodium Pentothal in which a person goes in deep sleep and in a few seconds he dies painlessly in sleep. But in India, active euthanasia is not yet legalized and is considered as crime under section 302 and 304 of Indian Penal Code.
However the Passive Euthanasia is legal even without legalisation provided certain safeguards are maintained as stated by Supreme Court of India under Para 30 of SCC in Aruna Shahbaugh Case. Supreme Court of India has further made distinction between Active and Passive Euthanasia. In Active Euthanasia something is done to end patient’s life, while in Passive Euthanasia something is not done that would have preserved patient’s life. In Passive Euthanasia doctors are not actively killing anyone but are simply not saving them and it may be voluntary or involuntary.