Euthanasia: Legislative Perspective In India
Arvind Kumar, Research Scholar, Department of Law, Kurukshetra University, Haryana
Prof. Ajit Singh Chahal, Department of Law, Kurukshetra University, Haryana
ABSTRACT
Euthanasia -the act or omission causing the death of a person suffering from an incurable or terminal condition, to relieve intractable suffering -remains one of the most contested questions at the intersection of constitutional law, criminal law and medical ethics in India. Unlike the Netherlands, Belgium or Canada, India has no dedicated euthanasia statute; the field has instead been shaped almost entirely by judicial pronouncement, principally Aruna Shanbaug v. Union of India and Common Cause v. Union of India, with Parliament playing a secondary, reactive role. This paper traces the legislative history of euthanasia in India, situates the 2018 and 2023 Supreme Court rulings within that history, examines the stalled Medical Treatment of Terminally Ill Patients Bill, 2016, and argues that the absence of a comprehensive enactment leaves individual autonomy in this field dependent on evolving judicial guidelines rather than a stable legislative framework.
