Dignity In Death: Examining The Legal And Moral Dimensions Of Euthanasia In India

Nikunj Agrawal and Sandarsh Saxena, Lloyd law College

ABSTRACT

The topic of euthanasia has engendered considerable controversy in many societies, including India. Euthanasia is still illegal under Section 306 and Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code and Article 21 of the Indian constitution, which upholds the right to life. In recent years, the discussion around euthanasia has gained more traction in India following the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court in the Aruna Shanbaug case in 2011, which upheld the right to die with dignity, and then Common Cause vs. Union of India in 2018, where the court paved the way for euthanasia under specific circumstances. However, the judgments were as ambiguous as one can imagine and missed several important distinctions that should have been made clearer, including the role of medical professionals, cultural rigidity, and the socio-economic status of people. I argue that the current legal stance is inconsistent with the right to dignity and other moral considerations, including autonomy, mercy, and non-maleficence, that it aims to preserve. A proper framework to enable euthanasia for terminally ill patients will positively impact the nation's social, political, and legal sphere in making laws that can benefit its citizens and uphold how they wish to spend or end their lives when suffering from untreatable or lifetime illnesses. This legal paper aims to understand and pinpoint the issues surrounding euthanasia from the perspective of the social fabric prevalent in our nation and whether it is really an obstacle in framing a legal framework or whether we can utilize it as a bedrock to create a robust blueprint to tackle this issue.

Keywords: Euthanasia, society, culture, terminal illness, legal framework, patients, socio-economic conditions and rights