NEW DELHI: Hospitals will have to set up approval committees to vet cases of
passive euthanasia and any distortion of facts before such panels may lead to a maximum of 10 years in jail and up to Rs 1 crore as fine, the Union health ministry has proposed in its re-drafted bill on the withdrawal of
medical life support.
The redrafted bill terms death from passive euthanasia "natural death".
According to the bill, the panels will also decide on the execution of 'living wills', which are a written statement detailing a patient's desire regarding future medical treatment, including whether to cease it, in circumstances where they are no longer able to express informed consent. The 'Management of Patients with Terminal Illness - Withdrawal of Medical Life Support Bill' proposes that all super-specialty hospitals have such approval committees .
A senior health ministry official clarified that the redrafted bill does not encourage active euthanasia.
"All provisions of the bill only support passive euthanasia. Passive euthanasia involves giving patients the right to withhold medical treatment or the life support system in the face of an irreversible terminal illness, while active euthanasia is the acceleration of death using injections or overdose of drugs," he said.
The legislation calls for continued palliative care even if a patient opts for passive euthanasia, and includes provisions protecting competent patients (described as those still able to take decisions on their future treatment) and the medical practitioners and care-givers involved from prosecution. "The bill also provides for the unanimous consent of close relatives to seek passive euthanasia for an 'incompetent' terminally ill patient," the official said.
The bill was put in the public domain in May last year and comments and suggestion were sought from various stakeholders. "Around 70% of the people (who responded) supported passive euthanasia," the official said.
The Centre, in October, submitted a draft bill to the Supreme Court that called for adequate safeguards and making the implementation of a living will subject to a medical board that would certify if the patient's comatose state was irreversible.
The SC, hearing a PIL filed by NGO Common Cause, has reserved its order on the issue. It had recognised passive euthanasia in 2011 in the Aruna Shanbaug, the former nurse left comatose for 42 years after a sexual assault until her death in 2015. The SC, in 2011, laid down guidelines on passive euthanasia and said the process should be followed across India until a law was enacted in this regard.
(With agency inputs)
Representative image.
