Hyderabad: With 12 per cent of India’s population comprising senior citizens, the debate on euthanasia is as important as ever.
One side says that Indians do not follow laws and empowering them with a weapon like euthanasia will lead to havoc. Another view, held by the senior citizens, is that it is their fundamental right to die with dignity and if they are willfully proclaiming the same, it should be allowed.
Would it be right to give a free hand to exercise such a right? Dr P. Vyasamoorthy of Society of Serving Seniors, said, “If a senior citizen, in his right mental state, has, drafted a will stating that when he falls ill he must not be kept alive by life support systems, then such a declaration has to be adhered to. The Court must at least come up with guidelines on how to draft such a document and prove its authenticity.”
Dr Issac Bhaskar, cardiac anesthetist, Care Hospitals, said, “We have life-saving medicines which are administered at the last stage when we know the patient is not responding to other drugs. In some cases patients bounce back. But in cases like brain dead patients being kept on life-support system for too long does not help. At the same time, the fear of misuse is prevalent and the deciding doctors have to be cautious.”
Misuse is one factor which, Dr K.R. Gangadharan, president of International Federation of Ageing, says, is the reason why the law is not feasible in India. “We are discussing a weapon that can be highly misused, Will there be a mechanism to ensure that a person does not force his or her aged parents to draft a will of euthanasia? As a nation, we are not mature enough to take a stand on this, he said.”
The chances of misuse against the mentally-ill and senior citizens who are ill-treated, abused, depressed and also left in old-age homes is a major worry. Mr Rama Krishna of the CGHS association of Kukatpally says, “This law is draconian and it will allow people to kill themselves if they are depressed or saddened by the state of life. We will give the impression that after retirement we do not require senior citizens, very critically ill-patients and they must die, which is wrong. How can that be allowed? “
We require a law to protect the health of weaker sections and allow them to get access to the best. If we discuss these issues, we will give the impression that after retirement we do not require senior citizens, very critically ill-patients and they must die, which is wrong.”
