It is titled as “Guidelines for Withdrawal of Life Support in Terminally ill Patients” (Passive Euthanasia).
Key highlights
- Withdrawing Life Sustaining Treatments (LST) conditions:
- Any individual declared brainstem death as per Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.
- If Patient is not likely to benefit from aggressive therapeutic interventions.
- Patient/surrogate documented informed refusal to LST.
- Constitution of Primary Medical Board (PMB) and Secondary Medical Board (SMB).
- Foregoing of LST proposals should be made by consensus by members of PMB. SMB must validate PMB decision.
- Clinical Ethics Committee: constitute by hospitals for audit, oversight, & conflict resolution.
About Euthanasia
- An act of deliberately ending a person's life to relieve suffering from painful and incurable disease or disorder.
- Passive Euthanasia: Intentionally letting patient die by withholding artificial life support like ventilator/feeding tube. Allowed in Norway, etc.
- SC, in Common Cause vs. Union of India & Anr. (2018) case, recognised right to die with dignity as a fundamental right under Article 21 and upheld legal validity of passive euthanasia.
- Active Euthanasia: Intentional act of killing terminally ill patient on voluntary request by direct intervention of doctor. Allowed in Belgium etc., and illegal in India.
